Inspirations bleu

Garden Gazebos

Gazebos are providing the perfect centerpiece for a home's yard. Offering up a sanctuary that people can enjoy all year round in the majority of climates. Regardless if you select and open or closed structure, the gazebo is a well recognized property addition.


Before selecting the gazebo for your yard, consider the lifestyle you live, your climate, and your location. Depending on what design you decided to select, there are a number of common building materials that are used for the purpose of building a gazebo. Some of the examples that is available to you for building gazebos including cedar woods, red wood, treated pine wood, aluminum metal and durable types of vinyl, which is a man made plastic material. Roofs for most gazebos are commonly either shingled or they are created in a material that matches the material that you selected for the building process.


There are numerous choices of floor plans that you can choose from including:


• Octagonal Gazebos


• Oval Gazebos


• Rectangle Gazebos


• Extended Oval Gazebos


Decide the type of gazebo placement you prefer.

You can choose to have Symmetrical Design or an Asymmetrical Design. A symmetrical design can be thought of as a mirror image. When symmetry is present, you would be able to cut the gazebo down the middle and everything would be the same on each side. This works nice for Victorian style garden gazebo placement, with the same place on each side. With an asymmetrical design, the garden gazebo is placed on one side of the garden, and everything leads up to it from one direction this placement. Become educated about the plants you want for your garden.  Before buying any plants for your garden gazebo area, make sure that you know what type of conditions are ideal for each so that you avoid planting something in the wrong place. Also, be sure that you know the size the plants will reach. Both height and width, to avoid having certain plants take over an area or crowd other plants or your garden gazebo.

Another option that is available to you is a spa gazebo, which is also known as hot tub gazebo. These types of gazebo can be built in such a way that they provide you with comfort and privacy. There are a number of features that can offer you open sides or enclosed sides, doors, wood flooring, benches, lattice screens and practically anything else that your heart desires.

Petits espaces : Un appartement de 37m2 à New York

L'appartement new-yorkais de Daniel et Dasha, d'une surface totale de 37 m² et dont 
la chambre donne sur un petit jardin, est décoré façon premiers colonisateurs américains. 
Un style à la fois rustique, chaleureux et original.











Source: petitappartement.com  (Un blog, comme son nom l'indique, spécialement dédié aux petits espaces)

Garden Plaques - Great Garden Decor

Garden plaques are popular outdoor decorative products that are available in a wide range of shapes, styles, and colors. These outdoor plaques are often very popular because of the sheer variety that is available to consumers. Whether it's a true crop garden, or the type of "garden" that allows for pleasant strolls past flower beds and well manicured lawns these garden plaques might be right for you.


The variety available is pretty amazing. Want a custom engraved stone plaque? These are commonly available. A tall stand-like brass or bronze plaque is another common design that many people enjoy. There are designs that show support for a favorite spots team, quips of poetry that inspire deep meaning, or religious verses that bring comfort from your faith.


There are many gardeners who only choose a single garden plaque, while others find that a combination of different styles and models make for a much better over all outdoor aesthetic.

A combination of garden plaques can often create a fantastic effect. A few great stone carvings with small sayings every few meters in the garden with a larger brass plaque on each side, and the full effect is complete. A combination of metal, rock, and plaster-like materials can also add the right diversity of appearance.

Decorative garden plaques increase the ambiance of any outdoor garden set up, and with the wide variety available, everyone should be able to find a design or style that suits them. Look for a quality design that is weather and wear resistant, and your garden will prosper from the additional beauty that is added from good quality garden plaques.

Les intérieurs de Noël
















Japanese Gardening

The basics of a Japanese Garden


Most of us have a pre-determined notion of what a Japanese garden looks like. We think of certain details which come to mind, things like the ever popular Japanese maples giving off their fiery glow in the fall. Or expanses of Kurume azaleas or rhododendrons with their fine spring colors. Or perhaps it is the rustling of a slender bamboo in the breeze.


Whatever it is, there is always something soothing about the typical Japanese garden. But is there, in fact, such a thing as a typical Japanese garden?


There are different kinds of Japanese gardens, each having their very own personality, if you will.


Some of the best known gardens in Japan, have almost no plantings at all, but are comprised of carefully tended "seas" of fine gravel surrounding rock groupings. Perhaps there is no better example of this than the world renowned garden at Ryoan-ji.


Ryoan-ji is undoubtedly the finest example of a Zen type garden and receives tens of thousands of visitors every year.

In fact, it is so popular, that one side of it is lined with a large seating area to accommodate tour groups. It is considered de rigeur for all school children in the area to visit Ryoan-ji as part of their education.

While such a garden may appear to be very simple in both its' design and construction, it is accepted that much thought went into this magical place to reach this level of perceived simplicity.


Japanese gardens span the full spectrum of garden types, from the dry garden as at Ryoan-ji, to large pond type gardens with their lazily swimming and brightly colored koi. And everything in between.


One of the favorite tricks of Japanese garden designers in the past has been to use borrowed scenery to enhance their appearance.

What this does, is to make the garden appear to blend in with, and take advantage of, the immediate surroundings. It gives the impression of much greater overall size.

Whether or not these surroundings are very close, or consist of distant mountain views, every effort is made to incorporate such views by carefully designing viewing areas to take full advantage of the natural surroundings.


Perhaps one of the most loved is the Japanese tea garden, with its' own tea house. These gardens are usually quite small, and are sometimes included as a distinct part of a larger garden. The Nitobe Gardens in Vancouver are an example of such a tea garden. The garden itself is fairly large and contains most of the elements you would expect to find in an authentic garden of this type.


Should you find yourself interested in the fascinating subject of how to build your own Japanese style garden, an excellent place to begin is to study those gardens in existence already. Whether or not you have the ability to travel to Japan and visit some of these gardens first hand should not deter you. Fortunately for us, the internet has given us access to the best of the best.


Secondly, and by no means an inferior resource, their exists a wonderful variety of top notch books, almost all of which are available in the English language. Over the years I have been able to accumulate a substantial library by many of the finest authors on the subject.