Garden Ideas and Inspiration

Flowers from my garden.

A beautiful mix of wild and cultivated flowers and ferns, picked in my garden and arranged casually in a vase.

Create a new tiny garden around a sculpture. Edge it with stones or logs.
Make a wooden bench from an old bed frame!
Hang a mirror on the outside wall of your home or on a shed to create the illusion of a window and reflect light back into the garden.
Plant two fast growing shrubs like this laurel on either side of a garden path, let them grow to above head height and begin to train them into an arch.
Invest in a wooden sculpture made locally and in doing so, support local artisans and artists.
Allow moss to grow on stone sculptures as this creates beauty, colour and the sense of a really old garden.
If you don’t have outdoor lighting, try putting lamps in each window where they will shine light onto your garden.
Plant shrubs, trees and flowers that will create all levels of height in your garden.
Remember that metal and glass go together perfectly in a garden and they can be picked up easily in Garage sales, boot fairs and secondhand shops.
Plant a fast growing climber such as Clematis Montana and allow it to ramble over buildings and trees.
Consider the view from your front and back doors when planning a garden. This is my back door leading onto a small Veranda and into the garden.
Creating a log pile can be very beneficial to insects and small mammals as well as looking beautiful.

Blessings Colette and Patsy xxx

33 comments

  1. Colette, sending you and Patsy love and light. Thank you for such a delightful stroll through your thriving sanctuary ~ it is soul healing. Thank you for the joyful ideas to enhance one’s garden!

  2. Hi Colette and Patsy,

    Just wanted to take this time to let you know I’ve been watching your videos for some time and I really enjoy and look forward to them. Thank you for dedicating your time to create your woodland and contributing to the good welfare of our world. The wildlife does appreciate it. I have a small backyard where I planted veggies, berries, flowers, and other plants. I love being out there as it is very relaxing. My most favorite is when the bumblebees surround my bee balm, they do love it and make a beautiful humming sound. I look forward to your next video! Take care, Kat

  3. So beautiful Colette, thank you for sharing your peace with usā¤ļø
    I love the nighttime photo of the cottage! Looks so cozy.
    Love and hugs to you and Patsy🐶🄰

  4. All so beautiful, just delightful . I’m 81 years old, I still working on my garden and flower beds. Thank you for the best!

  5. Hi Colette,
    The pictures of your garden are not only beautiful but also very soothing. Very inspiring as wellā¤ļøā¤ļø

  6. Such a beautiful garden you have, I’ve taken a few of your ideas for my own garden over the past few years. Thank you Colette x

  7. So beautiful, Colette. I adore your creativity, and the way you play with nature. Thank you for your inspirational post!

  8. Beautiful, Collette. I have always found you an inspiration. My own 1 and half acres in Cumbria is a wildlife friendly haven, I have built over 10 years using Bealtaine as a template. You are a wonderful woman, doing wonderful work!

  9. Your photographs always remind me that although we are care takers of this earth , we cannot control everything in a garden. Nature will burst through our perfect lines and show us a better way. From the moss on the garden sculptures to the cascades of flowers over a wall or the self seeded exquisite forms that line the gravel drives we lay. Thank you for another shared gift. Shirley.

  10. Thanks so much….. enough varied ideas to keep my garden looking fresh for a long time

  11. Thank you, Colette, for all you share. Your generous spirit and consistent, determined action over so many years are truly inspiring. My husband and I have spent the past thirty years on our 6 acres here in SE Pennsylvania, USA, creating a woodland hillside garden as well as a few open pasture acres for horses, but leaving the majority of space to wildlife. I call the natural hedgerows, woodland edges, and non-human created spaces ā€œthe wilds. So much habitat has been destroyed in development of McMansion neighborhoods around us, that we maintain our spring and stream, and purposefully keep ā€œthe wildsā€ for the deer, raccoons, skunks, opposums, snakes and amphibians, and huge assortment of birds that call this place home. I’m grateful to you for transforming your acreage and for sharing it with all of us. So nice to see your creative ideas and beautiful habitats. Thank you.

  12. Your gardens are such a profound contribution to Mother Earth. Thank you. Hugs to you and lil miss Patsy.

  13. Thank you for these beautiful photos and lovely innovative ideas. I am reading a book by that other Colette called Break of Day and her earthiness, love of nature, plants and flowers remind me of you! xxx

  14. I love the sculptures,. I too have an Irish garden that has some metal features along with stone sculptures but alas no wooden Owl. I will have to go in search of one. So far it has been an amazing Summer, enjoy it.

  15. My gosh lovely. Have enjoyed your channel for several years now, hope all is going well. You have worked so hard to come back from the storm. Bravo!

  16. Thank you Collette, such wonderful ideas, and inspiration for us all. Marvellous! šŸ™‚

  17. Excellent ideas! I think the headboard turned into a bench is a fantastic idea. I have never seen that. As always, I really enjoy seeing your gardens and the cottage.

  18. Such a beautiful life you’ve created Collette! You are an amazing woman and inspire me.

  19. Great ideas! I’ve always loved your garden and wish I could replicate your covered space at your back door, but my house is not at ground level. I have to be content with the other aspects of my property where I can let my imagination run wild, so the more ideas, the better. Thanks!

  20. Colette, your creativity is inspiring, and the beauty you have cultivated feeds the soul. Thank you for all that you share. You have opened a window so mother earth may breathe, and she
    thanks you with an abundance of flowers. My own property is a haven for a diversity of insects and wildlife, and it hums with the song of birds and the flitting of pollinators. I have been planting here for over 50 years, and my wonderful chaos stands in sharp contrast to my neighbors sterile lawns. “What was paradise but a garden”.

    • Your garden is so welcoming. Watching you working with mother nature inspires us all to trust that she knows exactly what we need. The cycle of life will not be stopped. A welcome walk through your calming garden.
      Blessing to you and Patsy.

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