Explore Your Garden Personality: The Whimsical Gardener

Gardeners are as diverse as the gardens they create. The best gardens are those that reflect the personalities and passions of those who make them. Some gardeners are true artists, meticulously creating vignettes full of color, texture and form. Some are travelers, creating adventurous gardens full of treasures collected over a lifetime of exploration. Still others are philosophers, creating gardens that are designed and edited to encourage deep thought.

Then there are the whimsical gardeners. These people are simply fun, frequently raising eccentricity to an art form. They are generally bold, gregarious, extroverted and sometimes unpredictable. Their gardens are the same. They are collectors at heart: If one is good, three is better. You can usually find these gardeners at thrift shops and garage sales, scoping out treasures with potential. More often than not, garden plants become supporting actors to garden art. The challenge for the whimsical gardener is to discover and adhere to the fine line between good garden design and flea market.

Let’s take a look at the personality of the whimsical gardener and how he or she can balance passion with good design.

Display your collectibles. The passion of buying and collecting courses through the veins of the whimsical gardener. Subtlety is rarely a factor. Brighter and unusual are better. Frequently, a premium is placed on common items that are used in fun and unusual ways.

This garden sports an impressive collection of wine bottles, used in a way that is a departure from the popular bottle tree. What makes this vignette tastefully festive and fun? The bottles not only shared a common purpose in the past, but continue to do so by being retrofitted with lighting. The use of Edison bulbs and the fact that they are all hanging from a single steel fixture brings unity to this disparate and colorful collection.

The lesson: Find the common thread among collectibles and group them together.


Celebrate color. Color is of utmost importance to the whimsical gardener. In this gardener’s mind, color is fun, festive and playful. Whereas some gardeners prefer to blend subtle tones in their spaces, the whimsical gardener generally follows the mantra, “The more and the brighter, the better.”

This garden proudly displays its colors and stripes. The array of bright hues and the informal bench seating give this space a childlike, playful vibe. What makes this space work? The bright colors were applied on similar vertical surfaces, creating a rhythm that brings continuity to this part of the garden. In addition, the foliage is entirely shades of green. This tones down the space. Can you imagine this scene with chartreuse or red foliage?


Embrace shapes. The Berkeley, California, garden of artist Marcia Donahue is the epitome of a whimsical garden. Shapes, colors and textures abound with childlike frivolity. This view is a free-for-all celebration of shapes. What is the common denominator? It is undoubtedly the proliferation of vertical shapes. Even the formally sculpted junipers take on an informal, whimsical feel in this space as they lift the eye to the second-floor balcony.

The lesson: Appropriately used shapes can direct the eye around the garden.


Display sculpture. The whimsical garden is generally home to a number of unique sculptural pieces. This dragon-in-a-tub fountain is a case in point. The piece is peacefully nestled among rosemary and salvia.

The beauty and power of this vignette would be compromised if several other sculptures were competing for attention. Observe the sight lines in your garden and place a sculpture so that the piece speaks on its own without competing with others. Bends in garden paths, hedges and even house corners create new opportunities to appropriately place sculpture.


Use foliage to its best advantage. In the whimsical garden, foliage frequently plays the role of a stellar supporting actor. In many of these gardens, foliage kept in shades of green provides both continuity and a place where the eye can rest. In this vignette, again from Donahue’s garden, the foliage takes on another role: It mimics the color, form and orientation of the sculpture, providing a rich nest that grounds the art in the garden.

The lesson: Seek out unique foliage plants to complement art pieces.


Repurpose what you already have. The whimsical gardener is a master at repurposing, limited only by imagination and ingenuity. Tools, equipment, tile remnants and broken pots are all fair game.

This gardener has created a planter for a crop of basil using an old wheelbarrow. Why does this work so well? It’s the previously missing third dimension when placed in front of the background mural, pulling both the mural into the garden and the garden visitor into the scene.

See more weirdly wonderful repurposed planters


Mix things up in your garden beds. The whimsical gardener will rarely be satisfied with formal bed lines showing off mass plantings of spring bulbs. Why be normal when you could be spectacular and unique?

This vertical succulent garden screams whimsy, from the curlicue design to the bold use of chartreuse foliage. The stripes in the cushion fabric and the vertical horsetail rush along the top of this bed balance each other beautifully while appropriately framing this statement of whimsy.


Use ground covers to establish cohesiveness. Ground covers have the unique ability to bring unity to disparate elements in the garden. This composition of salvias, pansies and tree roses is viewed as a unified piece because of the whimsical and appropriate use of a chartreuse ground cover. Without it the sense of order would be lost. Additionally, it adds texture and draws the eye through the space, inspiring childlike exploration. After all, the whimsical garden begs to be explored.

More: What Kind of Gardener Are You? Find Your Archetype

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