Whimsical Gardens: These are garden styles with a sense of humor. Objects of ridicule, of the absurd, the admired or even the adored can be the style of this garden subset.

The elements or the entire ambiance in whimsical gardens is determined by or arising from or even tinged by whim or caprice. They are often erratic in execution with various degrees of unpredictability in its concept or detail. Children or the child in the adult, love this style of garden design because humor or incredulity is generally not found in the landscape. The idea in whimsical gardens is to take an odd or fanciful idea that appeals to the client and give it high priority. The landscape architecture professional could recreate an Alice in Wonderland world within the landscape with all its characters and a garden setting that has many of the land features and art forms to support those characters. You could also introduce just a single whimsical element, as long it is significant and appropriate to the overall look of the garden. And appropriate in this case does not mean adherence to any other style concept but whimsy. A popular whimsical introduction could be a caricature of a person or animal that personifies an idea, an attitude, a time in history, or just about any concept that might represent something to the client. This whimsical piece could be placed somewhere in the garden where it might seem so totally out of place that viewing it would induce an emotional reaction from the observer.  A full sized bronze black bear sitting on the steps of a swimming pool with his legs crossed is sure to pull a smile out of the most humorless person you know. Whimsical gardens will bring out the creativity of both the client and design team.

Photo Palette Offerings

(Obviously, only a small sampling of related garden elements can reasonably be displayed, but the viewer should be able to use these as a springboard to develop their own design palette.)

Typical Whimsical Garden Scenes

Typical Whimsical Decorative Elements