I would suggest that non garden designers can train their eye to what they like and and what appears beautiful if they spend some time really looking at gardens and individual plants, and even more importantly, the natural surroundings to get ideas for their own garden. It might be as simple as clipping photos of appealing gardens from magazines, taking digital or 35 mm photos of appealing natural areas within your region, or driving the neighborhood to find examples of gardens that appeal to you. The next step might involve trying to analyze the characteristics that you find appealing, and don't just concentrate on the particular plants, colors, etc., but instead think it through in terms of the feelings it gives you; i.e., is wide open and spacious, enclosed and contemplative, restful, dynamic, exotic, familiar, etc. It also helps to really be honest with yourself about what you want your garden to be. Is it just for you and/or your family? Are you trying to compete with the neighbors, or is the potential status of a new garden an important consideration? Also it is really important to consider the longer term costs of maintenance and time required to keep the garden going. As well, try to think longer term in what you want the garden to be and do, which really affects how closely to plant things, what initial sizes will best suit your requirements, etc. I always try to elicit responses to these less obvious concerns before I start a design. I also prefer to work with clients who are referrals from previous clients, as they are more familiar with my work and are already self-selecting. I also really like to take potential clients to see my gardens and ask questions as to what appeals or not in each. I also find that opening my client's gardens on garden tours is a good way to get exposure to potential clients, and recommend garden tours to the public as a way to get more exposure to all the variety of designs and designer approaches. Visiting historic gardens/houses and botanic gardens is another approach to see and define your preferences from the enormous pallette of plants that can potentially be used in your own garden design. It may be heretical to say this, but a garden is an artifical construct, and does not have any specific rules as to what makes it work for any one person. If you are philosphically drawn to using natives and trying to create a garden that is not so dependent on constant work and resources to keep it going, you will not be happy with a formal garden of boxwood and roses. If a garden that appears similar to the untouched surroundings is not your idea of a garden, you won't want to hire a designer that specializes in the minimalist, naturalist approach. My favorite clients are the ones that feel a garden is both a refuge from the daily grind, and should be beautiful in its own right. I also enjoy the opportunity to incorporate art or influences from foreign travel into the garden design, and especially enjoy it when an initial non-gardener gets involved with gardening as a result of their newly created garden. Just coming off a garden tour this past weekend where over 1000 people came through a small 2000 square foot garden in one day, after viewing 13 distinctively different gardens and styles, it was interesting to question visitors about what they did/didn't like about the various gardens. I'll confess that I find it a little disappointing when the average visitor only sees the plants currently most showy in bloom, to the exclusion of all else. But there were certainly enough visitors who also "got" the larger picture, and were intrigued by the constrasts of the architecture brought out into the garden and contrasted with the abundance of riotous plantings to soften it. To have others notice the attention to details of matching flower and foliage colors to the house colors, and asking questions about the mix of hot and cool colors, dry and tropical plants, were the visitors I spent the most time conversing with. It was also interesting that out of over 150 different species of plants in the garden, there were only about 5 or 6 that elicited the most questions. As the garden and house will also be featured in a future issue of a national garden magazine, it will be interesting to see what the garden editor and photographer will see. After having the garden photographed by several other nationally known photographers, it is also interesting to see that each photographer captures different things. The end result, is that I do enjoy sharing my art with a wider public, and also learn that I can't please everyone, and shouldn't even try. It is enough to hear the client tell me that they enjoy their own garden more all the time, and to get their suggestions for how they would like to see the garden evolve, or give me thoughts on what they'd like to do diffently on the next project...

This is a fun thread! I wonder how many of us garden. I'm a bit fanatical. I've never really had an eat-in kitchen, just our soon-to-be-ex-kitchen's peninsula seating. Since the peninsula was our main prep area and since sitting there afforded us excellent views of all the dishes, knives, cutting boards, etc. used in prep, it was not very relaxing to sit at! And now that I think of it, I don't have a lot of seating in the garden(s) either. One 25'x75' plot at our local "community gardens" (I have to drive there) consists of 27 raised beds with paths between them. I do sit on the edges of the raised beds, but more often at one end underneath a tree, since I like to look at the whole plot and the bees, dragonflies, butterflies, flowers, veggies, etc. from that end. At home, the veggie garden is in a fenced-off area to prevent critters from getting in, though there are roses and clemati growing on the pergola gateway to it. So I guess my favorite thing is to sit on the patio and be surrounded by the beds of flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees when at home. I do like to sit looking at the crammed-full "kitchen garden" though. I can hardly wait until we get to eat out there every night again. Neither of those really counts as "in the garden," but they're more in the garden than overlooking the garden from, say, a deck raised above them or something. The main exception is at home when the mosquitos start coming out. We're looking forward to our new sunroom where we can look out at the gardens without (my husband) being eaten alive! bean

BeverlyFLADeziner, thank you for the suggestions. You are right that this room has caught some things, lol. The wine racks are definitely going away-- we have a full size wine refrigerator coming for our family room and those racks will go on Craigslist. I like the chandelier, but in terms of light fixtures, I'm trying to navigate a fixture that fits with the 1924 colonial style with wainscotting but that is transitional enough to fit my style. I like the unexpected nature of my modern art with the old house. I want the light fixtures to really fit the house, even if I wasn't the one living here. Any suggestions for something that could fit that bill? I am open to new drapes. I think I tried ivory (to match trim) and just preferred the burlap but I'm not tied to them at all.

Solid is ok especially if you have some patterned fabrics in the room... it depends I guess, but more info would help: is tile textured/rustic looking, or quite smooth? I doubt I'd pick a medallion if fancy...