Garden decor has never been more easily infused into outdoor spaces as naturally as it is today. With whimsical design ideas, such as old bathtubs for gardens and shed walls for mural paintings, you can dress up your garden with natural decor easily and beautifully.
Let these unique designs take your garden from the typical greenery landscape to imaginative and whimsical.
Paint the Unexpected
It’s always a great idea to include a cool mural in your garden. Maybe it’s a painting of your own or one that you have professionally done, but either way, having a one-of-a-kind painting in your garden will make it shine like no one else’s.
Go for the unexpected when choosing your mural location. Infusing garden decor into the natural landscape is easy when you decide to paint on the side of a shed or a wooden fence.
These places are often forgotten when it comes to garden decor, but they can be used in so many unique ways.
Be sure to use exterior paint that can withstand any weather (but more specifically, the weather in your geographical location). If you choose the wrong type of paint, your mural won’t last very long, leaving you with a faded piece of art you’ll need to touch up frequently.
There are easy ways to guard your painting against the elements. Check out this article to give you more ideas on how to seal your mural for years to come.
Pretty Planters
Long gone are the days of using old wooden planters to house your vegetables, fruits, or flowers. In fact, the garden world has seen quite an increase in the connection between garden decor and practicality with the use of unique planters.
Get crafty with your repurposing skills to create a beautiful garden decor in your natural landscape. You can use things such as old bathtubs, toilets, and even cinder blocks to create unique spaces for plants and vegetables to grow.
Depending on your desired garden aesthetic, you could also go out on a limb and use wire baskets, water jugs, and other galvanized containers to create unique planters in your garden.
The great thing about repurposing materials is they will instantly give your garden a unique look while also providing new life to old things. It’s a win-win for all.
What’s even greater is that you can find some of these items at landfills, Goodwill, or other discard locations. These items may be free or cost you very little to acquire.
Retired Tools
Do you have gardening tools that you no longer use anymore? Don’t let those tools go to waste in your garage any longer. Give them new life by adding them to your garden in natural ways.
An old piece of latticework could be used as a hanging garden near a fence or vertical structure. Hang pots from the lattice and let the plants or vegetables grow inside of them.
They’ll eventually cover the latticework, leaving you with a beautiful piece of practical garden decor in your garden.
Old wheelbarrows are also great for giving your retired tools a new lease on life. They even come in different shapes, sizes, and colors, which lets you decide what you want your garden to look like design-wise.
Add colorful plants to the wheelbarrow and light up your garden’s landscape. It’s an easy DIY project that can be done in no time.
Bird Baths
Adding natural elements of garden decor to your space is probably easier than you thought. Bird baths are a great way to add charm and design to your garden while also still leaving it feeling like they were always meant to be there.
The birdbaths will definitely be talking points for any guests who come over to enjoy your garden oasis.
While the traditional stone bird bath is always an option, there are unique ways to incorporate a bird bath using natural materials.
You could create a pine straw birdbath with a small bowl to collect water in from the rain and hang it from a tree. It will look like the birds created the birdbath themselves with the natural materials you use.
It’s also something unique that will be hanging from the trees in your garden, which is unlikely to be found in many other gardens. (Check out this tutorial to learn how to build your own pine straw birdbath.)
You could also use small scooped-out stones on the ground to create a small birdbath right inside of your natural landscape. This birdbath won’t look forced or unnatural as it will appear the rock formed its own birdbath from a natural formation.
Focal Points are Spot On
Treating your garden as if it was a room in your home is a great design idea. The expression of who you are does transcend out into the natural world, well beyond the walls of your home.
That’s why your garden should be designed aesthetically as your home would be – with focal points and all.
Having a focal point in your garden might not seem like the most natural thing to do. However, it is actually quite easy to incorporate into your natural landscape.
Pick one element that you think will be good for creating a centerpiece for all to see. This might be an old wheelbarrow transformed into a planter, old windows you use as hanging gardens, or shovels grouped together on a shed wall, creating a beautiful art piece.
Whatever it is you choose, pick something that stands out to you. Make sure that it fits naturally within your garden and captures who you are as a person at the same time.
One idea that we love is using old, galvanized watering cans to create one big art piece of the wall of a shed, fence, or other vertical structure. Make the grouping large enough that they make a statement but be sure to keep the focus on the garden them as much as possible.
They’re easy to hang, too.
Make them look as if they’re pouring water onto the ground, and you’ll love the design element the art piece brings to your space.
What screams garden decor more than galvanized watering cans?
Incorporate Statues
Natural garden decor can easily be incorporated into your own garden with the use of statues. You may opt for more traditional figures that look like heads or entire bodies, or you may go for something more whimsical like architectural pieces from old buildings.
Placing the statues in the garden in “random” locations will allow for the garden to build up around the statue itself. This will make the statue one with your yard and appear as if it has always been there.
Flowers, bushes, and other foliage will begin to grow around the statue, which is exactly the natural landscape feel you desire.
Some other ideas for pieces you can use to incorporate structures into your natural garden are pedestals (intact or broken), cornices, and other architectural fragments from old buildings.
In our opinion, the more rustic the statue or structure appears, the better. Bring out the old-world feel right now.
You can find old statues or structures at antique shops, landfills, or estate sales. Sometimes you may even be able to find these garden decor pieces for free, but don’t be discouraged if you don’t.
There are plenty of great pieces that might cost you a few bucks but will bring the impact you’re looking for in your garden. Trust the process and allow your natural garden to develop over time, not overnight.
Light ‘Em Up
Natural garden decor doesn’t have to be fancy or cost you a lot of money. One way to add natural decor elements to your garden is by adding lighting. A great lighting source for your garden is solar lights that feed off of the sun’s light throughout the day.
You won’t need electricity or batteries to light up your space at night.
The great thing about solar lights is that you can place them anywhere in your garden. This way, you can infuse them in your garden to make them look like natural parts of the landscape.
They won’t be obvious and will only light up the areas you wish to showcase.
If you want to see great options for solar lights, check out your local home improvement store or read more on this blog. Show off all of your hard work day or night with these solar lights.
Tree Benches
Adding a bench in the middle of your garden isn’t exactly keeping with the natural landscaped theme; however, there is another way to incorporate seating into your landscape design while still making it feel all-natural.
Tree benches are great options for giving you seating options while also keeping the feel of the space within the natural realm. Wooden tree benches are great because you can paint them to fit your design aesthetic or keep them their natural wood color.
They’re also easy to maintain and easy to build.
Typically, these tree benches form a circle (of sorts) around the tree’s trunk. The shape on the inside is usually more of a pentagon, hexagon, or even octagon (depending on the size of the tree’s trunk).
Shelter Space
Sometimes, the best way to enjoy your garden is by adding a shelter space to sit underneath. Shelters offer shade, protect, and comfort in an all-natural world. You could go for a pergola, an arbor, or even a trellis to give you the sheltered feel in your garden.
These structures are easy to dress up with other garden decor designs.
They’re also great for allowing plants with vine-like structures grow. They will spread all around and on them to (almost) hide them from the outside world.
If you wanted to get even fancier with your design, adding curtains to the pergola or arbor walls could add some privacy. Hanging plants, windchimes, or even a chandelier will transform the open-air space. But, it will still look like something that looks like it was there all along.
Add comfortable seating, solar or string lights, and other design elements to create the space inside the shelter you imagine. With an aspect of original design as well as comfort and luxury, these shelters will take your garden decor over the top.
Creative Pathway Edging
One place that most people tend to forget about is the pathway edging. This is usually because they are not as visible. Pathway edging can be used to give the garden a unique look while still looking like it belongs. You have to think outside of the box and use materials others might never dream of using.
Glass bottles are great for adding depth and uniqueness to any walkway edging. Line them up upside down along the pathway creating the boundary for the path. You could leave the metal edging, or whatever edging you currently have.
Then you can place the glass bottles beside the existing edging.
If you don’t have an edging at all, using the bottles upside down and directly, side-by-side will give it the structure look while also still feeling like they were there all along.
Give your pathway edging even more design style by using mix and match bottles. They don’t all have to be one color, and they can even be different shapes and sizes.
Whatever you desire, you can do! Collect bottles here and there and see what you come up with. You might be surprised at what you can create from a little patience and a lot of creativity.
Your Garden Decor
Garden decor that looks natural yet decorative is much easier than you might have imagined. With a little bit of imagination and a lot of ingenuity, you can create a garden that both looks and feels like it stepped out of a forest all on its own.