Tips For a Tranquil Garden

Your garden can be a bright, cheery, busy place, or it can provide the tranquility, rest, and refuge you need after a stressful day.

Tranquil landscape (Kate Russell)

Just as color schemes, lighting, furniture placement, and window treatments all play significant roles in creating an interior refuge, the view outside those windows has a double impact. Whether you are looking at your garden through a window or as you walk through it, a chaotic garden can be anything but tranquil.

These tips will help you transform your garden into a tranquil refuge, with minimal effort.

1. Keep it simple

Clutter in the garden only adds to your already busy schedule by reminding you of jobs that need doing. Clearing away yard debris is more conducive to rest and relaxation. If you have plants that are not thriving, or that do not add joy to the space, get rid of them. The same is true of outdoor furniture. If it is junk, throw it away. If it is still useable, donate it to charity or hold a yard sale. Use decorations that are simple and pleasant. Leave fences and lawns clean and empty of distractions.

2. Live in the color of calm

Reds and yellows are great colors, but they will not help you to relax. Far more calming are blues and earth tones. Design your landscape around blue flowers and various shades of greens and browns, for a beautifully relaxing view. ​​

Birdbath, bulbs and perennials (Kate Russell)

3. Just add water

The sound of running water has a profound effect on mood. Fountains, waterfalls, even the sound of a bird bathing in a birdbath are sounds that bring us back to nature in the way a campfire does, but without the mess or risks. Water features like these also provide for equally stressed birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Taking the time to watch these creatures in your garden or landscape is sure to improve your mood.

4. Employ the sweet smell of success

Aroma is another powerful tool in creating a restful refuge in the garden. Savoring the fragrant scents of jasmine, hyacinth, or lavender, you feel tension slip away, replaced with that inner calm you have been seeking. Other fragrant plants include roses, Dianthus, gardenia, Nicotiana, Clematis, and Lily-of-the-Valley. Along with the lovely scents, these garden beauties add gentle color to your garden.

Jasmine climbing pergola post

Ferns soften a landscape

5. Natural tranquility

Stone, wood, grasses, living plants, and nature-related art all help to ground you in the moment and set aside the stresses of the day. Forget the brightly-colored plastics and cheap spontaneous yard art purchases. They are bad for the environment and your psyche. Treat your yard (and your life) like a valuable painting, to be handled with care and thoughtfulness. Keep it simple and serene. By using natural pieces to create focal points in your yard, you will help your mind unwind and they are often free for the taking. Soft ferns can also help you find your calm.

6. Minimize maintenance

It is difficult to call your garden a refuge if you face a mountain of to-do items as soon as you walk out the door. Instead, design your yard with an eye for minimal maintenance. Use plants that have evolved to thrive in your microclimate. Native plants and succulents are always good choices when trying to reduce the need for watering, weeding, and pest prevention. And let those plants go to seed. They will provide food for local wildlife, added structure and color during winter months, and free new plants in spring.

Native CA poppies requires little care (Kate Russell)

Maintenance-free succulents make gardening easy (Kate Russell)

7. Gentle sounds

The sounds of traffic, machinery, and neighbors can destroy the tranquility of your refuge in a matter of moments. You can reduce the impact of these intrusions by planting trees and shrubs around your property line to block the noise. Good fencing can also block sound while adding privacy and security.

8. Create an herb garden

Edible herbs require only minimal care and most of them are perennial plants that come back every year. Besides adding flavor to your meals, fresh herbs such as thyme, oregano, and rosemary, add color and fragrance to your garden, while helping deter many common pests.

9. Delightful lighting

The way you illuminate your yard can impact the way you feel. Garish lamps and brilliant spotlights will not help you relax. Instead, design for relaxation in the garden by using gentle, soft-colored solar lights along paths, around garden beds, and in seating areas.

Natural colors and materials make a garden more tranquil (Kate Russell)

10. Make the time to enjoy it

One of the biggest problems faced today is our unwillingness to simply make time to relax. Busy schedules, television and social media, obligations to family and friends whittle away at our spare moments until there aren’t any. Schedule some time for yourself to enjoy your garden, without chores and to-do lists. 

Simply stop and smell those roses. You’ve earned it.