How about a doggie garden...you could plant things like dogwood? Don't really know what other plants would fit.....but when my baby eventually leaves me I plan on cremating her and then planting her.....I always thought creating a space for her in the garden would be nice....and maybe do little doggie benches and other cutsy doggie things in the area?

A patriotic garden. flowers of red, white and blue. Adding a few small flags and other symbols.

A biblical garden. Planting plants mentioned in the Bible and adding stepping stones engraved with scriptures. Making the Ten Commandments twin tablets with cement and adding it to this garden. Also the Star of David.

The wizard of Oz theme.for Marcia. Including yellow brick path and red slippers.

I have fern gully with my flying fairies,remember?
Felix

I have starated a wish garden - Feelings, emotions, thoughts I want to cultivate in my heart and spread to my home, my neighborhood, city, state, country, world, universe... Imagine it and you start the process to create it.
{{gwi:865076}}

These are all great ideas! I love the Wizard of Oz plan, Felix. I have so many collectibles, I'm sure some of them would work outdoors. And all I have to do is make myself a yellow brick road to get started. (Don't tempt me...I'm thinking about it even as I type!)

I'm making a fairy garden for Tabitha at some point, because she is our magical fairy baby we never expected to have. And her middle name is Faye. Fae is old English for fairy, so...not an original idea, but fitting for her.

Love everything you guys suggested, and the picture of the Wish Garden is great, TreeLady.

Marcia

Felix, you got me thinking about the garden I wanted to plant at our church. I was going with bleeding heart vine, Crown of thorns and apostle iris for sure. Consider the lillies and peace plants. Angel trumpets? There were more but I can't remember them now.
I was going to set aside a patch of tares...ok stickerburrs with devil's backbone, devil's trumpet and a Satan croton I got from Ricky a few years ago. He says it looks better in the dark(shade)
And why do you think that is?.....talking in the SNL church lady voice.

I've been thinking of a dinosaur garden for awhile too. I attached a picture of my kids on "safari through my garden" a couple of years ago....imagine this scene with a large topiary dinosaur or two. I'm thinking I want to spend my tax rebate on topiaries.....and make a Jurassic Park style safari trail for the kids to drive through, etc. I would use the large macho ferns, my variety of large elephant ears, large anthuriums, etc. Any other ideas?

Here is a link that might be useful:

aroidgardner, how about sago and cardboard palms, and calico vine, a pond, too, with big leaved lotus... wow, what a neat idea, I wish I had room for such an adventure trail....

Aroidgardner,those children are so good looking. You have a wonderful idea. Plus with "children" imagination,it would be awesome.

Coffeemom,those are good choices of plants. Also include secluded benches for prayer and bible reading. A water fountain. I suggested for me to do this several years ago
before my stroke but, unfortunately, the pastor said no.

What a super idea. I have to put on my thinking cap.
Coffeemom you could include a passion vine if there was room. I believe that has religious symbolism.
Atreelady- how about Tranquility
I'm off to find my thinking cap.

Good idea....I have some calico vines ready to be transplanted. Good idea for the cardboard palms too. I've been wanting other types of cycads for my garden, so I'll look into that too.....plus some of the blue types.....

My son asked if we could add a pond to the area as well. We have the pond mold...ready to go. We had it in the ground a few years ago and we had tons of frogs which in turn attracted snakes that liked to eat the frogs. We had a visitor come and eat all of our fish....and in the end we pulled the pond after we had 2 baby hognose snakes in the house.

We live in the country and have an acre of property and always have snakes around...there just seemed to be an overabundance when we had the pond in. Will have to think about it. It may be different since the Jurrasic path will be away from the house.

I keep forgetting-- a dino garden could TOTALLY benefit from ferns-- they are prehistoric, I think, and someone mentioned a macho fern up there...I had some thing else under the thread that got me thinking about all this [the one on Mid-May bloomers, maybe?]

Tons of fun, y'all! More in a minute--
Shelbey

Sorry-- had to go plant something. I wanted to follow up on the Oz garden!

For Mother's Day I got a book called "A Child's Garden" by a former asst. editor of Garden Design mag. And there is an Oz garden in there-- complete with a yellow brick road [a very short path painted yellowish], and a scarecrow! of course. I think poppies are in this one, but I don't think those grow here? There has to be something poppy-like. And it would be fun to stick in one of those "tornado bottles" that kids like to play with. Maybe a tinman made of galvanized watering cans or something....not sure what could replace an apple tree, but there are such cute munchkin varieties of various flowers-- zinnias, sunflowers, etc-- that could stand in, as well as some spiky cottage-y types of flowers.

I say: go for it!
--Shelbey

I have been collecting Oz memorabilia for years and years, Shelbey. I have a lot of little plastic dolls that wouldn't fall apart outside, and I also have a tinman I found at a garage sale made of tin cans and a funnel. He's about 2 feet tall, and adorable. I'm really thinking about this one.

When I went MGM studios years ago and took the Ride The Movies tram ride, we were sitting up front next to the driver. When they went around the corner and I found myself in OZ with lifesize Dorothy and Crew, I almost had the Big One! The driver asked Mark if I was okay, and Mark looked him straight in the eye and deadpanned, "She's having a religious experience." It was so funny, but honestly, I wanted to get right out of that cart and go stand on the Yellow Brick Road. It's been my favorite movie since I was five years old. (That's a LOOOOONG time!)

Marcia

The thinking cap has finally worked. I want to put plants in my garden that have my grandchildren's names. There are probably a bunch of hybridized plants with the name 'Megan', maybe some for 'Taylor' and fewer for Ethan, Shane and Andrew. I have a couple african violets with their names but I want outside plants too.

Marcia, you have the best stories,lol!

Kristi, I LIVE to provide Comic Relief, you know. But it's a much better story with sound effects, wildly waving hands, and lots of gasping and swooning!

Still thinking on my WOZ garden. I have another idea. I wanted to make a Fairy Garden for Tabitha, so now I'm thinking the whole spot could just be a Magical Garden. There could be a Fairy Town, a Princess Town with a Little Castle (she adores ALL the Disney princesses), and an Over The Rainbow Garden. As you walk around it, you could come to the different "worlds." Sort of like a pint-sized Backyard Epcot! Haha!

Marcia (thinking this idea just HAS to happen!)

Marcia, the Oz garden could have a 'dark magic' section. I saw some yellow dahlias with black leaves at HD this week...in fact, I was joking with a friend about designing a 'goth garden' with black-flowered and leaved plants, and night bloomers of various kinds. Of course, the upside of that too is that if the plants die...it just adds to the effect!

I love the 'over the rainbow' garden idea. Doodle it out and post the ideas! I bet it'd be fun to hide fairy figures and other surprises throughout...that's what I'd like to do, anyway!

--Shelbey

Well, every Over the Rainbow garden would HAVE to have a Haunted Forest, now wouldn't it? With a sign that says, "I'd Turn Back If I Were You!" And spooky trees made from driftwood! And little owls with eyes that glow. And flying monkeys lurkin' about. Oh, yeah, I can see that, all right!

Marcia

Marcia, I can see it too!

I've been planning a 'alien' garden but haven't started it yet. I've collected lots of little containers to use as molds to make hypertufa buildings. Once I make those, I'll plant strange small plants around the "site".

*Twilight Zone theme music, here*
Ooooo-eeeeeeee-oooooooooooooo.....

I love the idea, Kate! Clever girl! I want to know when you start making the hypertufa! It would be really cool. Why, you could even hang a flying saucer or other UFO from the nearby treelimbs!

I'm beginning to think we are all a little nuts. Used to be, I thought it was only ME.

Marcia

All great ideas!
Kristi~ I have a book on a bible themed garden, I would be happy to loan you. Not that you need it, you already have great ideas.
Here is my attempt at a themed planter.
I used a tealight garden house and picked up a cute little gnome (mark this day on the calendar, I have never particularly cared for gnomes) and couldn't resist a sign like this one! I wish you could see, he is riding on a toad! LOL!

And you have this in a container? It's just so cute. I never thought about doing that. It's a great way to start a theme before you've had time to lay out a whole garden bed somewhere. I'm going to have me a Wizard of Oz hanging basket REAL SOON!!

Thanks for the idea! Yours is adorable. And riding a toad, eh? All I can say is, to gnome him is to love him!
(groan!)

Marcia

LOVE the alien garden. Certain plants have also looked otherworldly to me.

The gnome container is a fun one, and so graet that it actually exists (rather than my own habit of just 'dreaming things up' and not having the chance to follow through)...I had an idea that spawned off talking about this with y'all [again, one that wouldn't likely materialize to reality, but fun to dream up]. It would be a trip to design some dish gardens centered on a theme and try to sell them at farmers' markets or such. I have enough odds and ends that I could poke into them as objects of interest-- cookie cutters in various shapes, dollar-store and goody-bag toys my girls have accumulated. Maybe I'll make one a summer project with my girls...my younger one is currently obsessed with roly-poly bugs!

--Shelbey

Kat, I love your gnome planter! Don't you just love it when things come together? He looks happy to be residing there for sure!

Had to put in my 2 cents on this one.

I have two big themes in my garden. They intermingle and criss-cross freely. And I think they are both just a little odd, yes.

1. Historical Garden: Each of these plants has a story behind it, dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Symoblism and imagery. A rich and fabled history makes for a good garden.

- Ginkgo biloba, sole survivor of a prehistoric order of plants.
- Olive tree, the ones that Jesus like to hang around.
- Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa), the very tree that the Buddha attained enlightenment under.
- Myrtle (Myrtus communis), heavily symbolic plant of early Mediterranean cultures.

2. Botanical Family Match: I indulge my inner botanist and match plants of common Families. For instance...

-Myrtaceae (Eucalyptus, Myrtle, Guava, Surinam Cherry)

-Solanaceae (Brugmansia, Tomato, Brunfelsia, Potato Tree, Brazilian Nightshade, Night Blooming Jasmine)

makes sense, right?? :)

Musicman, it sounds like a right brain take on a left brain project! Planting with a plan. Fascinating to someone with garden ADD like me.lol

Those are great-- along the lines of a Shakespeare garden, made up of plants mentioned in his plays. The botanic match would seem like a family reunion-- either they all get along and have the same needs, or...they don't ;)

Marcia, if you are reading, we were watching Wizard of Oz the other night,a nd there's a quote at the end that would fit perfectly in your Oz theme garden-- "- if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with!"

--Shelbey

Shelbey,I remember the quote. That is an idea that fits well in any and all gardens.
Felix

Shelbey, that's one of my favorite lines from the movie, too. That and just plain ol' "There's No Place Like Home." Having been an Army brat most of my young life, I never had a home, so my own house and garden mean a very great deal to me. No matter how humble.....

I'm really going to do this Ozzie garden, but it's beginning to reach a point in my yard where I can't go out there for very long at a time. It's miserably hot right now. So maybe in the fall...

Marcia

Manature- any progress with idea? I am going to begin mine during February.

Hi
I have a new theme for my garden . , There are no weeds at all they never come up .The hedges prune themselves. Everything grows and flowers yet never overs take the area.
It never gets too hot or too cold,dry wet what have you.lol All fruit falls only into the compost bin, There are no bugs except the pretty ones. Several Gnomes do all watering and fertilizing yet never get drunk or noisy!!
How's that for a "magical garden"?? gary

Danielle,
I'm so glad you brought this post back up to the top! I let my garden get pretty ratty this past year but one of the great things about gardening is that you get to start over again each year! 2009 will see me spending much more time in the garden. This could be the year I do my little alien landing site garden. At the very least I'm going to add more garden fou-fou, like plant supports made from copper tubing with beads to catch the sun, bird baths (hypertufa?) and colorful bird houses (like Nicki's).
It's going to be a fun year!

Kate

Wow what a great post, I am getting inspired...

Lisa B

Check out the Fun Folks in the Garden Junk Forum for some REAL inspiration
I like to add things to different areas. With a huge yard I find it more difficult than those with walls and garden rooms but I do my best

Here is a link that might be useful: whimsy garden