Where to Find Inspiration

There are many ways to find inspiration for reusing and repurposing items in your garden. Here are just a sampling:

• --Your specific needs and wants for your garden: Maybe you want to add garden seating to your garden, and maybe a side table as well. You are going to be looking at objects at yard sales and thrift stores that could be turned into those very objects, if you look at them creatively.
• --Magazine pictures: Gardening magazines as well as home improvement and home decorating magazines are full of pictures of items that might strike your fancy that you can recreate in some fashion yourself. Pull those pictures and keep them together in a labeled file folder so you can refer back to them as your project progresses.
• --Pictures in Books: There are a wealth of gardening and garden decorating books available at your public library and through Interlibrary loan. Beautiful gardens from around the world can provide inspiration for your own. You can copy the pictures you like, and place them in your file folder for reference.
• --Items to which You Are Drawn: When you go to yard sales, or shopping at other stores, pay attention to what catches your eye as well as puts a smile on your face. You'll know it when you see it!
• --Artwork and other Art Forms: Inspiration may strike when you surround yourself with lovely things to look at. Go to museums and art galleries for inspiration; even the theatre and concerts may provide visual and sound ideas for your garden.
• --Garden Tours: There are usually several each late spring and summer put on by different groups in Vancouver and Portland. Be sure to stay on the paths, and bring your camera to take pictures of what you like, and a notebook and pen to jot down the names of plants and objects that you find attractive.
• --Ideas from Friends and Family Who Live With or Visit Your Garden: Paying attention when people say things like, "I wish there was a place to sit down here to enjoy the view," or noticing that you could use a small table next to a grouping of chairs in order to have a place to set down a drink or a book are very important observations that may inspire you to fill those wants and needs.

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