Frenchify Your Garden

Ah! To be in France. In a garden. What could be more relaxing and romantic than the classic French garden? Well taken care of, thoughtfully designed with plantings and areas for relaxation, there are many elements to ensure a classic French garden. But if you can't visit France, you can create one at home! Here are some tips on How to Frenchify Your Garden. Frenchify VERB TRANSITIVE, VERB INTRANSITIVE Word forms: Frenchi-fied or Frenchi-fying to make or become French or like the French in customs, ideas, style & manners.

How to Frenchify Your Garden.

Plant Lavender.

Lavender is not only gorgeous to look at {softest sage green with lavender, purple, pink or white flowers} but the aroma will scent the air with delight. I personally love the bees humming from flower to flower too. Bees make for a healthy garden. Planting in unusual antique French containers make it even more special!

Blue French Hunt Pillow >

Create Seating Areas.

Every French garden has at least one pleasant place to sit and enjoy a coffee, a cup of tea, or a glass of lemonade in the sun. Even the smallest apartment in France might have a tiny balcony with one chair, in spring and summer you will see people out there, face in the sun, relaxing and enjoying all that is sunshine. Have a garden? Even better! Create a wonderful area to sit for a while, or to enjoy meals with family and friends.

Shop French Lemon Tablecloth >

Decorate with French Garden Antiques.

Classic French watering cans, pots, baskets and trugs all add to the ambience. Most of them can still work hard in the garden after 100+ years, too! Garden antiques are amongst my most requested things to find for clients, and it's no wonder. There is something magical about their worn finishes and patina. Often there is a sentimental connection between garden antiques and ourselves. For me, they all remind me of my grandfather's garden, and him, it never ceases to warm my heart with wonderful memories of him.

Shop Garden Antiques>

Sculptural Details.

Larger sculptural details add grandeur. Cast irons parts from antique French fences, large zinc finials? Mais qui. They all give us the illusion of living on a grand scale, a French chateau perhaps? Not to mention that they are great fun! These finials below are stunning, once part of a grand estate, now ready to decorate your garden.

Zinc Flame Finial >

Topiaries.

A darling of French gardeners, just a few beautiful topiaries make a statement. Buy them pre-grown, or for you who are more patient than me, grow your own! One of my new favorites are the hydrangea topiaries we bought last year for our own FrenchGardenHouse garden. Small topiaries also have a place in the garden. I have several on the potting bench, which I press into service as a centerpiece for al fresco tables. Bentley looks admiringly at the lemon cypress topiary - although I secretly suspect he's eyeing the strawberries and other food on the table. The French {and most other Europeans} spend as much time as possible outdoors with family and friends. They treat whatever outdoor spaces they have as extra rooms, and decorate them accordingly. Comfortable seating, plump pillows, beautiful pots and antique gardening pots, cans, and utilitarian pieces all add ambience to fresh green and beautiful flowering plants.

Need some French garden inspiration?

READ:

The Best Kept Secret Garden of Paris >

Just beginning to garden? Read Mr. FrenchGardenHouse's Beginning Gardening Guide > You can take a trip to the French Riviera & tour of the gardens at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. In France’s Cap Ferrat, it is stunning to visit, and offers a virtual tour of the gardens with nine different themes: French, Spanish, Japanese, Florentine, Provençal, exotic, a rose garden, a stone garden, and the Sèvres garden. By clicking on the small images on the bottom, you can tour parts of their inside and art collection. To Frenchify or non? I'm trying to create french garden beauty in our own little square of the world - will you join me?

A BIENTOT

Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com