Outdoor Furniture for a Variety of Garden Styles

Inspired garden design enhances garden living and a big part of the design includes suitable furniture. Find outdoor furniture you love that speaks to your interests and style.  For examples of furniture and decor that catches our eye, visit http://pinterest.com/thealohagarden/outdoor-furniture/

Use Colorful Lanterns to Make Your Garden Party Pop

Summer is here; let the garden parties begin! Make your party shine with bright, colorful hanging lanterns.  They are inexpensive, easy to put up, and have a tremendous impact. They come a variety of styles, with many different to colors and designs, to compliment almost every garden party theme.  As guests arrive and see the lanterns they instantly know that fun is happening here. And, should your daytime party continue on into the evening, the lighting has already been taken care of.  So, add colorful lanterns to make your garden party more memorable.

Lanterns line path to garden party.

Decorate Your Garden Table with Items From The Garden

This delightful garden table design is simple and beautiful. The decor comes from items found around the garden -  a small planter with flowers, a watering can, a lantern, and a tea light pail. With the addition of cut flowers and a wooden heart, you have a charming and romantic table with available lighting an intimate evening.

Lovely garden table vignette.

Top Ten Benefits of Plant Stands In Your Home or Garden

Plant stands have so many uses that we thought we would share our Top 10.  Here they are.

1. Beautifully displays multiple plants
2. Brings the outdoors indoors when placed in your home
3. Creates a positive impact in a small space
4. Makes decorative or seasonal updating easy by simply changing the plants and/or pots
5. Adds a comfy, natural feel where placed
6. Welcomes guests at entry ways
7. Brightens up dull corners when placed there
8. Ideal for apartment or condominium living
9. Great for small balcony, deck or yard spaces
10. Groups plants for efficient watering

Plant stands come in a variety of materials, styles, heights and colors.

Quaint Wheel Barrow Flower Pot Display

This wooden wheel barrow plant display adds an element of old world charm to your garden. It creates a wonderful focal point in a garden in and of itself and can also be combined with other rustic or country pieces for nostalgic look or western or country feel.

This wheel barrow is a charming garden accent.

Enchanting Fairy Solar Fountain Saves Energy

The adorable and inexpensive fairy design garden fountain (under $200) brings garden fantasy and fairy tales of days gone by to mind and inspires magical moments and story telling in children. Enjoyed by young and old, it is a delightful garden addition. It offers peace, serenity and soothing sounds, with the added benefit of knowing that you are saving energy because this fountain is solar powered, making it easy on ear, the environment, and your pocketbook.

Cute Wire Plant Stand Is Great Indoors and Out In The Garden

This adorable wire plant stand holds two planters, takes up little room, makes an area more cheery by incorporating plants and color, and lets the plants shine. It's perfect for your home or garden and the design works with many different decors.  Plants and/or pot colors can be periodically swapped out to stay current with changing seasons.  

Elegant wire plant stand to feature your plants.

Make Your Garden Stand Out with Art

Big, bold art adds interest and intrigue to your garden.  It can be abstract and thought provoking or themed to match the style of a particular garden, such as Asian (as seen in the picture of the horse statue below).  In this example, the horse statue alone has an Asian feel for those familiar with the style, but it could merely reflect that the owner likes this particular piece or horses. Combined with the Japanese lantern, however, it is clear that it is part of an Asian garden.  What is your garden style? Would a large statue or piece of art make your garden more impressive?

Art, it does a garden good!

A Fountain Can Turn An Unusual Space From Plain to Magnifiscent

This delightful European, angel topped, fountain helped fill an unusual corner off a deck, creating an alluring and soulful element in the garden that adds energy and life to the surrounding landscape.  It can be viewed and enjoyed at a distance from a garden path and can be heard from the deck, where the trickling water sounds help to sooth and relax people as the sit on the deck and enjoy the tropical landscape.

Angel Fountain Adds Interest & Appeal

Wishing Wells Are Wonderful Garden Accents

Wishing wells are where dreams often start. Like a fairy-tale, they draw you in with their beauty and promise of hope, taking you back to childhood thoughts and desires. This enchanting rustic wishing well planter evokes country charm, but is designed to work with many different garden styles.  You can't help but take a moment to reflect, close your eyes, and make a wish. Here, it may well (pun intended) come true.

Wishing wells are magical!

1, 2, 3, 4 Easy Steps for Great Garden Decor

Create a large garden focal point in four easy steps.  Step one, purchase a big, beautiful ceramic pot in a color and design that fits your garden. Step 2, obtain numerous stocks of bamboo, taller than the pot, in widths of an inch to two inches wide, to fill about half of the pot opening when bunched together. Step 3, purchase gravel or rock to fill pot the bottom third of the pot and add weight after the bamboo is put in.  Step 4, assemble in the same order.  Put it all together and what have you got? One simple, but exquisitely decorated pot.

Elegant & Simple Pot Design

Create A Fantasy Garden with Gnomes

The history of gnomes began in 19th-century Germany where they were known as Gartenzwerg (garden dwarf). According to Wikipedia, the term "gnome" in English is first attested to in the 1930s and has clearly taken hold.  Basically, gnomes are small, human like figurines wearing a pointy hat.  

Early stories of Eastern and Western European folk tale talk of both benevolent and malevolent characters, however, many stories exist that depict gnomes as helpful, caring creatures that look after gardens. They are often considered "protectors" of the garden. 

Today, these enchanting little helpers are still a popular and sophisticated garden addition.  There are many manufactures and different styles to choose from. These are a few of the adorable gnomes we carry.

Garden Gnomes Tending to the Garden -Well, Some Are.

Need an Impressive Garden Accent? Go Fish!

One of things I love most about garden decorating is that you are already working with a vibrant, living canvas - the garden.  Given this, sometimes all that is needed is a well-placed attractive element to draw one's eye.  This is illustrated in the picture below that simply incorporates a spectacular fish.   Not your style? No problem, "Go fish!" and pick an accent that's right for you.

This Is One Attention Grabbing Fish

Planter Stand and Ideas for Adorning Many Gardens & Landscapes

This affordable planter stand delivers and added bonus with its solar light. The basic scroll styling works with many gardens and areas.  Here are seven planter stand ideas that this stand is perfect for, however, I am sure you will also come up with many of your own.

1. Frame a front entrance or doorway with one on each side. 
2. Create a lit and planted (hanging that is) pathway along a drive or garden path.
3. Decorate the area by your mailbox with one or two of these.
4. Place it in front of big shrubs to accent them with light, dimension, and added color.
5. Place it in the center of a garden planter to light the planter and add height.
6. Place one or two next to a bench, under a tree.
7. Use it in an outdoor corner to brighten an area.

Planter Stand with
Solar Light.

Make Your Garden Pop with Colorful Pots

Colorful and decorative pots are a fantastic way to make your garden pop. The pots do not have to be planted or made into a fountain to impress.  They can add flair all by themselves and can instantly elevate your garden from a planted space to a designed space.  Select pots in shapes, heights, colors and designs that accentuate existing plants and have fun!

P.S.  When placing pots, please also think about how the area will be maintained and ensure they are appropriately protected.

Colorful pots transform this tropical garden.

Choose An Outdoor Fountain That Is Right For Your Garden

When looking for an outdoor fountain, choose one that compliments the area, overall garden, and best represents your design style.  The picture below features the same landscape, with three different and inexpensive fountains (all under $250) that can be used to change the garden's look.  The first is a more traditional, mosaic fountain; the second, an Asian solar fountain (where the box can more hidden); and the third, an abstract fountain.  Together, you can see how each can work, but it is a matter of preference.

One landscape, three fountains; which would you choose?

Receive Many Benefits From A Garden Wall Fountain

Wall fountains are a dynamic piece of art that can be used outdoors or indoors and add beauty and life to an area.  Water is also calming and the sound of gentle running water soothes the soul and helps people relax, particularly after a long day.  In addition, they add a bit of humidity to the air, which helps to improve health on a number of levels.  Further, one can always find space somewhere for a wall fountain; they don’t take up much room.  For these reasons, they also make excellent gifts, not just for garden lovers, but for everyone.  With so many styles to choose from, you are sure to find something for each person on your gift list.

Pineapple design wall fountain welcomes you.

Garden Benefits: Relax Outdoors

Need a place to get-a-way and relax.  A garden corner or space between two trees will do.  Just add a hammock and relax away.  It is an inexpensive escape that will increase your enjoyment of the garden.  You can add style and decorate it with a colorful pillow or throw.  Then, add a side table for refreshments and you are good to go.