SPRINGTIME AT HOME – A whimsical garden often engages your senses in unexpected ways. Flowers and plants might mix with colorful found objects or vintage garden tools. If you’re artistically inclined, a whimsical garden provides a blank canvas for your favorite medium. Take inspiration from 10 gardens where flowers are only one of the attractions.

1. Your Favorite Things Perhaps you’re a cat, dog, rainbow, or lighthouse lover. Create a themed garden showcasing your favorite items among your flowers. Use pieces with different shapes and colors for maximum impact.

2. Unconventional Planters Give a functional garden a quirky new personality. Spiff up old bathtubs, galvanized or enamel tubs, cinder blocks, and ceramic bowls. Grow colorful flowers, scrumptious vegetables, and fresh herbs in your offbeat containers.

3. Vintage Chic Garden Give your garden vintage charm with original-condition outdoor furniture, well-used wire egg baskets, or old wooden birdhouses. Blend the old and new by filling your aging containers with blooming flowers or colorful decorative balls.

4. New Life for Garden Tools Well-used wheelbarrows, shovels, and metal watering cans can become garden showpieces. Turn your battered old wheelbarrow into a character-rich planter (line your metal wheelbarrow with heavy-grade plastic). Turn your shovel collection into climbing vine supports, and group your painted (or unpainted) watering cans together.

5. Striking Statuary Stone statues, concrete pedestals, and architectural surplus pieces can mingle nicely with flowers and ornamental grasses. Your colorful groundcovers, perennials, and shade gardens will warmly welcome these new garden companions.

6. Color-themed Garden Splash your favorite color all over your garden. Create stunningly bright patches of flowers, and paint your wheelbarrow and other garden tools to match. Add painted planters, garden stakes, and even plant markers to your outdoor playground.

7. Airy Outdoor Rooms Design your own outdoor room with all the comforts of home. Define your space with an arbor or pergola, and add a trellis (or two) woven with your favorite flowers. Arrange an all-weather chair and accent table in your new space. Add a shade screen so you can read or snooze on lazy afternoons.

8. Unexpected Art Turn common garden objects into pieces of art. Transform your conventional retaining wall into a colorful mural. Paint a faded wrought iron gate with lush green jungle tones, making a perfect backdrop for your blooming tiger lilies.

9. Fanciful Fairy Tales Create your own fairy garden with feather-like plants and tiny, colorful flowers. Miniature furnishings will give your fantastical friends a resting place when they’ve finished exploring your garden. By using fairies’ favorite colors, and keeping your décor to scale, you’ll attract discerning fairies who will appreciate your efforts to make them comfortable.

10. Sentimental Favorites Create a memory-filled garden using cherished items from family trips or important occasions. Embellish an accent table with shells from your family’s Bahamas vacation; or creatively arrange several metal sculptures you made in a fine craft class. Choose pieces with sentimental value that casual garden visitors might also enjoy.

Submitted by www.landscapingideasonline.com

#GlancerMagazine #HomeGarden #March2017