Design is an element of planning your garden much like it is for any art. You want your garden to look lovely not only to you but to anyone who sees it. So where do you look to come up with ideas for your garden to begin your gardening around your home? Where do you look to find design inspiration?

To get ideas for your garden, start with looking at your own interests and your own home. After all you will be looking at and living in your garden just as you look at and live in the interior of your home. Presumably your interior decorating reflects what you like and this is a good reason to carry that decorating scheme outdoors into your garden.

Is your home decorated in a country French theme? Carry the colors outdoors with the fabrics you use on your garden furniture and the flowers you plant. Country French usually uses the colors of yellow and blue or red and a touch of green. Create a garden room as a place to dine using these colors. And don't forget the almost obligatory pottery chickens or chicken platters in your country French theme.

Have you a nautical theme indoors with lots of blue and white to invoke the seashore? Plant white and blue flowers. Use nautical items to add interest to your garden. Rope wrapped planters with blue and white flowers and large seashells, as pots for small plants, are interesting touches to add.

Do you have things you love to collect like teapots? Use teacups and saucers, and even cracked teapots, as planters for small plants you display on your patio or terrace. Or perhaps you like old farm implements and have a select few to serve as pots for some flowers in your favorite colors to form the base of a country garden theme. Larger implements can serve as the basis for flowering vines to grow upon.

You could simply begin your garden based upon your favorite colors. This is a good place for beginning gardeners to start. Pick two of your favorite colors, being sure that they complement each other, and select flowers and other plants to provide these colors within your garden.

Look also to the style of your home when designing your garden. A lovely colonial would be well served with an English garden or earthen colored adobe home would look great with interesting cacti and succulents appropriate to the area. Keep this in mind when coming up with your garden ideas. Don't try to create an English cottage garden in the middle of the desert in Arizona. It just doesn't fit the climate or location.

copyright 2006, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson