If you’re looking to start a garden, re-landscape your current yard, or even just for new ways to fill an empty plot of land in your backyard, be sure to pay close attention. We’ve scoured the Internet for some of the most creative and beautiful ideas in gardening to act as your inspiration. From gardens that integrate patios with pergolas, gazebos, or other seating areas to thickly landscaped flower gardens, this collection of garden designs is sure to have ideas to inspire your next garden project.
Keep an eye out for water features like streams, waterfalls, ponds, or large fountains. These add soft ambient noise that is wonderfully soothing to listen to while sitting on your deck or patio.
Also watch for the various styles of pathways and how the materials and shapes interact with the planting beds of the garden. Will your pathway swerve around large planting beds? Or will your planting beds conform to a pathway?
This collection features ornamental gardens, water gardens, and even a few vegetable gardens, so whatever your garden’s purpose is, you too can have a stylishly landscaped garden! Whether your garden is large or small, perfectly manicured or a little wild, you’re sure to find the perfect idea to inspire you this summer!
1. Lush Garden with Wooden Pergola
This beautiful garden consists of a large brick patio area partially covered by a wooden pergola, and entirely surrounded by lush flowering bushes and other flora.
2. Natural, Sprawling Garden with Stream Water Feature
This garden is balanced between trees, a plush lawn, and a series of water-friendly flowers and bushes. A stream water feature winds throughout the spacious garden, emptying out into a pond.
3. Lush Landscape Front Garden
This garden is situated in the front of the home, allowing the gardeners to display the fruits of their labors prominently to the neighborhood and to passerby. Tall day lilies and squat Japanese maples are just two of the varied plant life in this design.
4. Pathway Rose Garden Leading to a Gardening Shed
Along this cobblestone pathway are a large number of salmon, light pink and nearly white roses, along with wildflowers. The plants sweep over portions of the cobblestone, creating a natural, country atmosphere.
5. Small Garden with Pond
Even the smallest gardens can be rife with beauty, as this one is. Bold daffodils and other plants sidle up to the edge of the small but deep pond. A small ceramic gnome is also nestled into the design.
6. Herb and Vegetable Garden
Planting beds constructed out of two-by-fours and garnished with quaint garden decorations like signs denoting where each herb is planted.
7. Ultra Modern Garden Shelter Over Water Feature Pond
Tucked deep into this lush garden left to grow naturally is a large rectangular pool with a modern shelter and walkway. This is a perfect retreat on a hot summer day.
8. Container Garden with Rock Sculptures
This simple garden is full of tall and short containers with creative sculptures scattered throughout. The variation in plant sizes, bloom size, and container gives this garden an interesting texture.
9. Wildflower Garden with Rustic Fence
The narrow packed dirt path that winds through this backyard garden is filled with a thick abundance of wildflowers in mostly white, but with a smattering of other colors.
10. Incredible Landscaped Backyard
The entirety of this backyard is rimmed in stone brick edging, creating massive planting beds filled with ornamental trees, bushes, and flower ground cover.
11. Evergreen and Ground Cover Garden
While some gardens are bold and colorful, green gardens can be just as beautiful. Varied textures and species help make a mostly green garden more diverse.
12. Thick, Colorful Garden
A simple, delicate lawn chair sits near a thick bed of colorful flowers that line the perimeter of this yard, providing both beauty and a privacy screen.
13. Integrated Container Garden With Pathway
Taller, well established plants are surrounded by smaller plants in containers. The stepping stones of the pathway have small holes where greenery is planted, and petunias are placed in small baskets along the path.
14. Thick Beds of Tulips
Try planting thick rows of tulips in your garden, and be sure to vary the colors. Other springtime flowers, like daffodils work well with tulips.
15. Traditional Garden Mixed with Container Garden
Even in smaller backyards a beautiful garden can be achieved with stonework and containers filled with your favorite flowers and ornamental plants. As a bonus, these gardens are simple to rearrange!
16. Lush Overgrown Garden
This backyard garden has a charming overgrown look to it with thick bushes of all heights. Smaller planting beds are rimmed in stone edging.
17. Flagstone platform with Diverse Flora
A set of three wooden trellises surround a raised planting bed formed out of layered flagstones. A flagstone path leads up to the small garden vignette. A pot of tulips adds color to the display.
18. Brick Plaza with Fountain Surrounded by Bushes and Flowers
A small, peaceful plaza has a three-tier fountain and two stone benches on either side. Tall bushes provide privacy for those seated around the fountain, but don’t obstruct the meadow view beyond.
19. Mossy Stream Feature
For a more natural look, a small stream water feature running along a mossy planting bed filled with ferns and small wildflowers can be just perfect.
20. Winding Lawn Path Through Large Planting Beds
Huge swaths of planting beds run throughout this enormous yard, with a curving narrow grass path between each display. The displays have similar features, but are still varied in color and species.
21. Container Garden with Aged and Mossy Stone Structures
For a more whimsical garden retreat, you can add aged stone benches and displays to a more natural wooded area of your yard. Moss covered edging stones add to the aged look.
22. Wildflower Garden
For a bright, colorful garden, grow colorful varieties of daisies and wildflowers. Stacked stone walls and perfectly shaped bushes add a bit of sophistication.
23. Rock Pond Surrounded by Ornamental Trees
A small garden pond surrounded by stones, a small two-tier waterfall, and water-loving plants. Topiary bushes line the side near the fence, and the scene is framed by two maple trees.
24. Shaped Low Hedge Garden Plots
Even if you don’t have a large garden like the one shown, you can arrange small garden vignettes along a pathway. These are contained by short hedges and filled with brightly colored flowers of varying heights.
25. Mossy Garden Path
Moss can be a great way to add greenery to your garden with less maintenance. This garden pathway has moss growing on either side, filling in the spaces between the flagstones.
26. Green Garden with Trellis and Center Fountain
For a grander feature, install a circular fountain with low stone benches surrounding the plaza. The rest of the yard can be packed tightly with flora, creating an oasis in the center of the yard. Flat fountains like this one are great summertime fun for kids too!
27. Wild-Growing Garden with Stone Path
Allowing the grass to grow slightly over the stone path creates a worn, aged look to your garden. Keep in mind that a garden doesn’t have to be perfectly manicured or filled with fragrant flowers to be beautiful or provide a sense of peace.
28. Peaceful Sand, Lawn, and Stone Garden
This Zen-style garden transitions from a packed sand path to a circular grass lawn surrounded by boulders, hardy bushes, and trees.
29. Simply Landscaped Garden
In the fall, a single well-placed tree can erupt into bold color, transforming the look of an entire garden.
30. Low Maintenance Garden with Footbridge and Stream
Ground cover and stones are a great way to create a low-maintenance garden with flair. In this case, a small footbridge over a manmade stone stream adds texture and visual interest.
31. Large Flower Beds Edged in Hedges
This expansive garden is filled with enormous flower beds with flowers segregated by species and color, creating a rolling landscape of flowers leading up to a water feature.
32. Small Backyard Garden with Waterfall Feature
If you don’t necessarily have the time or space for a large garden, you can install a small water feature, like a waterfall, and design a small, low-maintenance garden around it.
33. Backyard Gazebo Surrounded by Lush Green Garden
If you create a water garden, be certain to allow plants plenty of ways to drain. This garden contains a stone planting bed with thick reeds. The stones help drain off water in wetter climates.
34. Backyard Vegetable Garden
Even vegetable gardens can be beautiful when arranged well. This garden’s planting beds are edged in stone. The rest is packed sand, with a shaped sand pathway.
35. Backyard Garden with Rows of Red Tulips
Even a new garden can be beautiful, so if yours isn’t well established yet, keep at it. Bare spots are opportunities for more color or variety!
