Get Inspiration from Interior Design for Your Garden Design

Garden design is not unlike interior design. It's an art form and reflective of the personal style of the individual. It expresses the essence of the creator. With interior design, the elements include furniture, color, texture, material and styles such as contemporary, country, traditional, and abstract, to name a few. Garden design is simply adapting the same design principals to create outdoor spaces and focal points with a slightly different palate of materials to work with but offers similar rewards. It's every bit as satisfying not to mention an additional way to let your creativity flow.

I like to think of my outdoor spaces as an excellent way to dabble in the unknown. Think about it for a minute. You can experiment with color combinations and blend styles that you might never have the nerve to attempt indoors. We seem more hesitant to get bold and daring indoors but with a ceiling of sky, our inhibitions seem to float away. Probably because Mother Nature is more forgiving than your mother-in-law is.

We all pretty much know what we like when it comes to design, garden and otherwise. We might not know exactly why we like it, we just know that it's pleasing and appealing to our senses. If you can't define your own style to a certain 'period' by making an unequivocal declaration that this is YOU, hope is not lost. You just need to be a bit of a detective and ferret out what your style is based on what you like. You need to look beyond the forest, as it were, and see what individual 'trees' please your senses.

If you see a garden you admire, jot down what elements you find appealing, whether it's the color, the texture, the size, the shape, and the over all effect, be it formal, carefree, or something in between. Do this when you go out for a walk, drive or on a trip to your local garden center. Look inside your home for clues to how the outside should feel in order to reflect your style. Look around your favorite room and again, jot down what it is that makes you like it. If it's a piece of furniture, determine if it's the shape, or the wood it's made of, or the colors or textures of the fabrics covering it. These elements can usually be related to something outdoors in the garden. When you're at the mall, stop in a furniture store and just walk around. When you come to a room you like, take notes, and even if you dislike a room but are struck by an element in it, remember what it is and why. Even paging through a magazine will give insight if you allow it. When you come across something you like, tear out the page (only if it's your magazine or someone very forgiving) and form a file where you can store the pages and refer to them later.

I personally don't subscribe to the theory that you have to lock yourself into any one style throughout your entire landscape. I tend to embrace many different styles of garden design within my landscape and also within a single garden. I let the surroundings dictate what flows best into the landscape that is around them. For instance, my home as viewed from the street, is a classic stone colonial not unlike a few others on the block. While I do love cottage gardens and the free form wildflower look, it would be out of context with the front of my house and not in a pleasing way. I also happen to like the formal English garden look and that works well with the over all theme of my home. Things out front are neat and tailored and utilize trees, shrubs, and perennials grown for their foliage, rather then their flowers. A peek around back, however, will afford a much different view of numerous garden styles that work well with the less than formal look of my enclosed porch with cedar shakes and the stone walkways and concrete patio. It's really just a matter of being very observant and detail oriented until you can identify more readily the things that make you think and feel 'wow'.

If your home is formal then there is a good chance your outdoor space will reflect that. If you like a less structured environment then a free form flowing garden will probably suit you better. You can, however, add little touches of less formal elements to a formal garden and vice versa. A stone retaining wall is a formal element that can be softened by using plants that cascade and billow, taking the edge off and making it feel less formal and much more welcome. If, after planting something, you don't like it, you haven't lost anything, rather, you've gained more insight about yourself and what appeals to you. The garden is a wonderful place to employ the trial and error method. You can't 'do' anything out there that can't be undone just as easily. If that formal, neatly trimmed, regimental boxwood just isn't you, trade it with a friend for something that is. The key is to identify what you like and why and then translate it into gardening elements. You'll pull your look together and give a sense of unity that, regardless of the style, spells success.

Use colors outdoors that you love indoors. This might be one color you adore, in which case, try a monochromatic garden on a small scale first to see if it's 'you'. The important thing to remember when using a single color is to obtain your interest through shade, hue, size, and shape of both flower and foliage texture and color. Use color outdoors that you wouldn't dream of using indoors and don't forget to try combinations of them. Give in to your sense of adventure and try bold or exotic plants. Plant those cannas or castor bean plants.

Try mixing elements from different styles. Such as formal topiaries under planted with cascading vines, or soften a formal flowerbed edging with plants that are airy and informal. Replicate the things outside that you love indoors - if you like the glow of candles then by all means, use them outdoors or use garden torches which give the same romantic feeling. Group elements outside like you would when decorating inside. Make a statement with an array of wicker baskets filled with flowering plants, interesting branches, pine cones, acorns, and other seed pods, even a basket of various leaves in vivid fall colors adds interest and whimsy.

Remember which colors compliment others and use this to create harmony. If you want to create excitement then use hot colors such as reds and oranges and pinks. If you want a calming effect then combine blues and purples and whites, which are cool colors. Listen to the landscape around you, through your eyes, of course. If there is a place in your yard that draws you to it, time after time, make a sitting area to enjoy the view so you can immerse yourself in the benefits of it's natural beauty. Arrange flowers for outside like you would inside. Use galvanized buckets, watering cans, old crocks, or flower pots and add the bloom 'de jour', or cut branches from various trees and shrubs and arrange them as you would flowers. Try anything once, twice if you like it. The beauty of gardening is, if it pleases your senses, then it makes all the sense in the world.

If you have a ceiling of sky, and the sky is the limit, then the possibilities are out of this world.