Oh, it’s been a long winter, as evidenced by the copious amounts of garden ornament and furnishings (often still in the boxes), awaiting warmer temperatures. Those enticing garden catalogs were hard to resist, as their focus is on wonderful outdoor summer life; something that seemed so far in the future. The down side to all this early buying is that it was purchased before the garden was designed. So instead of asking, ‘”How many people do you typically entertain?” or “What sort of play areas and spaces do you want for your children?” our challenge is to make all the styles, colors and themes fit together cohesively in the landscape. Clutter is confusing and can negatively affect the energy of a space. In design, it’s truly putting “the cart before the burro” Style should be determined first. Traditional, contemporary, arts and crafts, country home, etc. and then the spaces determined by desire and need. If the client is set on ‘collections’, than vignettes may be the solution to organization and simple hardscape materials to provide a canvas for the ‘stuff’…I mean, ‘ornament’.
Bottom line; start with a theme/style; lay out the desired functional spaces and then coordinate the furnishings and ornament within those defined spaces. Above all; work with a professional before garden surfing. This is more cost effective, reduces clutter anxiety and ultimately provides positive energy.