Using Garden Ideas To Help You Design

We don’t exist in a vacuum. An apocryphal quote of Picasso suggests “Good artists copy. Great artists steal”. What does this mean when looking for garden ideas?

To me, it suggests great designers steal concepts. They use the local environment, and needs of the client, to shape this concept into something unique. Other designers copy and paste the same design into different spaces. They don’t use the environment to shape the design. And they assume every client has the same wants and needs. I don’t even think of them as good – other than they produce a result.

The aim of finding garden ideas and inspiration is to develop a list of concepts. I call these ‘flexible criteria’.

We don’t want to find garden ideas to copy straight into the backyard. This may be a good outcome, but it’s not great design. My design process will help you develop something unique and personal. Copying and pasting garden ideas will result in a derivative and boring design.

Taking the time to search for garden ideas helps you in many ways.

You may have a list of things you want to include in your garden design already. Searching for more will open your eyes to more possibilities. A concise list will be helpful when it comes to searching for garden ideas and concepts. It will also help during the design process.

When it comes to things you want to do in your backyard garden, I break things into two categories.