Balcony Garden

Originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete

Balcony garden design uses the same principles as regular garden design, only on a smaller scale. Patty Brown offers some excellent tips for designing a balcony garden.

The economy has claimed another garden business. Smith & Hawken will close its doors by the end of this year. The business has already shuttered its online operations, and is beginning to liquidate all the goods at its stores. Time to shop!

The folks at notNeutral have seriously cute and perfectly classy garden decor. Originally founded as a one-man design firm, the company applies signature patterns and colors to everything from household goods (barware and dinner plates) to garden decor (plant stakes and candle holders).

notNeutral’s metal filigree-style lanterns splash flickering patterns around for a perfect evening glow. These would be great (in addition to jack-o-lanterns) for a stylish Halloween party.

The garden stakes come in fun shapes (insects and flowers) and colors (magenta and lime). Their snowflake shapes would be perfect to dress up a winter-blah garden.

[photos: notNeutral]

I love it when designers take a simple motif, and turn it into a whole line of fun, cute things. Take the garden decor of J Schatz as an example. They’ve taken the humble egg and turned it into ceramic bird feeders, bird houses and planters. They also offer egg-inspired home decor. The egg style is so sweet and the vibrant colors would be an eye-catching highlight in any garden. These would make a super housewarming gift or wedding present for your favorite gardeners.

[photo by J Schatz]

The Lifeshop Collection offers sumptuous outdoor furniture with very contemporary and organic looks. The woven Iraya Daybed reminds me of a comfy nest I would just love to curl up on those cushions with a good gardening book and a glass of pink lemonade after a hard day toiling in the dirt.

[photo by The Lifeshop Collection]

Design*Sponge blogger Grace Bonney shares her favorite outdoor furniture and accessories for under $100 over at Domino magazine.

The gardening life Web site features all sorts of sweet gardening inspiration. From curb appeal projects (including a contemporary Craftsman garden) to an encyclopedia of seasonal living, gardening life has tons of garden pictures that offer great ideas for landscape design and outdoor entertaining.

Derek Fell’s “Encyclopedia of Garden Design & Structure” offers advice on everything from training espalier to creating focal points with arbors. True to the encyclopedic form, it is an A-to-Z reference about all things garden design. The pages are loaded with sumptuous photos and garden ideas that will inspire you to add your own little folly near your pond or tuck a garden statue into a little niche.

Fell doesn’t stick to standard gardening ideas, either. He includes structures like labyrinths, lathe houses, belvederes, and ideas for framing and edging. One of my favorite photos shows a giant clock that uses sedums to make the numbers. Brilliant!

While the big box stores have rolled out their standard, traditionally styled arbors, trellises and gazebos, GI Designs’ 2008 catalog offers a variety of fresh, modern garden structures worth taking a look at. Some of their styles lean toward the more conventional (check out the Mission-style fence or Hoop and Arrow Trellis), and they are plenty pretty. But GI Designs really shines with its more contemporary pieces that will satisfy gardeners seeking to add a modern look to their spaces.

With similarly styled window boxes, arbors, trellises, gazebos, and fences, GI Designs also allows you to create a cohesive look with your garden structures. The company creates innovative designs using a variety of metals that come off as contemporary without leaving the best of traditional design behind. For instance, the subtle Asian styling of the New Iron Urban Arbor would fit just as nicely in a Craftsman-style garden as it would in a Mid-Century modern plot.

Besides all the garden structure loveliness, GI Designs also sells a variety of home and garden decor.

I’ve been looking for something a little fancier to replace the chunks of tree trunk we currently use for garden seating. I love the garden stools profiled over at House&Garden, but they are a wee bit out of my price range at the moment. Maybe I can get my hubby to shape the ones I have into something like the wood stool from Vivavi with his handy-dandy chainsaw. Until then, I’ll use humor to convince my guests that the seating is, in fact, cool. Welcome! Feel free to sit your rump on a stump. Yeah. That will work.