Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Choosing The Right Garden Decor

By Cheryl L. True

Gardens are not just areas where you produce plants and vegetables. To balance your green thumb, improve your outdoor decor to create a lovely garden even without flowers. Here are some tips to think about:

Scale - there is nothing bad than something that is too large or too little. Know how big your area is and select the right decor. Break up large, uninterrupted empty exterior walls with something big too like a cedar planter or trellis. Putting together items of the same size can help occupy space and make an inviting visual appeal.

For example, at the corner of the patio place a large trellis with climbing, flowering vines. In front of the trellis put a wicker chaise lounge and a smaller side table beside it. A small wrought iron candle lamp or bonsai plant will look good on top of the table. The scale of each of these items should be purposefully considered to make the entire scene work well.

Balance - this is achieved when all decorative items work as one to become something bigger than the sum of their parts. Be sure that no decoration overshadows, competes or trumps other items in an ensemble. Select an item as a main point with all other items supporting that choice.

Rhythm - in design, rhythm is a word that describes the frequency or how often an item or a pattern repeats itself. The best way to describe this is by using real outdoor dcor examples like a string of patio lights, the pickets in a fence, the stripes on a patio cushion, or the pattern in a brick or stone sidewalk. Utilizing an item to create rhythm can give a backdrop against which other, more melodic elements can shine.

Harmony - like balance, harmony is a synergistic word that tells what happens when contrasting items are grouped together. Contrasting colors, shapes and textures must be able to complement one another, work together and give more to the scene than any one of them could by itself.

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