18 Tips for Decorating Your Garden

 

1. Use Ornaments as Finishings

Much more than an afterthought, garden ornaments can guide how you shape and use your outdoor space, and affect how it feels when you're in it. A wrought-iron gate can mark the entrance to a world of green, a tree-hung lantern raise your perspective, a curved bench inspire garden decorating a nap. Carefully placed, pretty yet practical, these elements offer garden decorating  subtle but effective clues: Turn here. Look up. Slow down. They also give a garden space a finished look in all four seasons. The trick is to not overdo it.

Shown: A weathered iron pendant, with some bulbs removed for a moody glow, hangs from a tree over a bed of agaves.

Yard Sculpture Duck Flower Pot Garden Statue for Patio Lawn Decor AF0315

2. Design for Outdoor Rooms

"A furnished garden shouldn't look too perfect or contrived," says Susie Beall, an interior designer who, with her architect husband, Ed, conceived the gardens on their rolling acre in Southern  garden decorating  California. Their goal: to create outside rooms as comfortable as the ones inside.

Shown: Succulents spill out of a pillar-like planter at a path entrance, with an iron bell hanging from a nearby tree.