How To Design A Garden, Part 1: Inspiration

1. a volunteer plant, just a few sprouts coming up cracks in pavement beside a sighting of tiny street art on Abbot Kinney Blvd., in Venice, CA
2. the way plants form themselves, naturally, into pleasing patterns; from a hike with a vista in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles, CA
3. found objects from an afternoon walk around Venice, CA: a perfect 'Iceberg' rose, a heart medallion, and an old book called "Outdoor Lore" 

| these three photos reference the post below, "How To Design A Garden, Part 1: Inspiration"

If you take time to look and are open, you find gardens, plants, design, architecture, beautiful spaces and gorgeous details everywhere. Whether it's a little volunteer plant, just a few sprouts coming up from a crack in the pavement next to a sighting of tiny street art on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, California [See Image 1]; or the way plants form themselves, naturally, into pleasing patterns that you notice on a hike with a vista, like this one at Los Liones in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles [See Image 2] — if you let it, inspiration for your garden can strike you any time you are aware.

The first step in designing your garden is to get outside and turn yourself on to details: 

Go outdoors. Take a walk.

• Notice things: what you like, what you don't.
• Take mental notes of how plants play together, or as solos, the way they take up space.
• What is it that's so nice about your neighbor's garden? Why do you like it?
• And what about the other awful one at the end of the block? What is it that puts you off about it?
• Think about which textures, shapes, and look of plants draws you to them.
• What architectural styles most please you?
• What is it about the design and details of that the patio at your favorite restaurant that makes the hours melt away?

If you have the means, visit some public gardens. If you are traveling, seek them out.

• Allow your mind to be open to taking notes of what you like and what you don't.
• Don't worry about how to fit this into your landscape at this time, this process will happen organically, certain things will just hit you and stand out.
• You'll know what you can use and what you can't in due time.

Think about use of space. 

• Not only how to maximize it, also how to make it comfortable and what about the spaces you love makes you want to stay there.
• Walk around a nursery or botanical garden.
• Take a little notepad and write down which plants you particularly like.
• Let all this noticing and thinking simmer.

Don't get ahead of yourself.

• For the time being, let your brain do the work of beginning to form a plan for your garden without you consciously trying to synthesize it or control it.
• Relish this time of openness and exploration of the outside world.
• Cherish the time you spend outside, letting your personal landscape style root and come alive.
• There will be plenty of tough decisions to make in soon to get your garden in the ground. For now, just be open to the what is around you.

And let it inspire you.

You never know what you can find. For example, last year, on a walk near my house one sunny afternoon, I found these three things: a most perfect iceberg rose, a heart medallion, and this old book on "Outdoor Lore" [See Image 3]. I found them because I was in the moment and I wasn't looking in, I was looking out. Upon my return home I felt peaceful, lucky, and amazed that on a quiet afternoon, there is beauty which the world will just give you if you notice it. If you allow it to happen, this is how the inspiration for your garden will come: as a collection of found objects, that, found and observed separately, work together perfectly, somehow. I can't make a garden from this, no. Do I know that I am open enough to inspiration and details that I can use my sensitivity to create something well-thought, pleasing, beautiful and effective? Yes. Have confidence in that. It's a joy.