Bailey Van Tassel

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garden design mood board
11 Apr 2022
Garden Design

Our Garden Design Inspiration & Mood Board

I could honestly spend hours upon hours gathering inspiration in the form of Pinterest perusing, book reading, magazine clipping – you name it. I LOVE the gathering process so much. Our garden design inspiration revealed to me how much I really love this balance of structure and wildness. I like there to be big pieces that create some formality alongside some wild and free elements.

You can see below in the mood board that there are a few elements we were really influenced by. The boxwood hedges, the fountain, the arch trellis – those things are happening in our space for sure. Some of the other items, like espalier apple trees, are total dreams that we will try to incorporate, but may not be able to.

How to Organize Your Inspiration

The whole process for gathering inspiration should be free and easy. Then, you need to start editing. I typically create a huge Pinterest board and then refine things into a new board called “finals” or something like that. I have a great Vegetable Garden Design board on Pinterest right now that is full of ideas. Once you get an edited idea, then you can see patterns and find your style easier.

Take my fun Garden Design Style quiz here if you want to dig in that way!

Overall, the inspiration-gathering process is really going to help inform you of choices and make the building of your project much easier.

How to Unpack What Inspires You

So, once you have all these pictures, how do we even unpack what about it inspires us? Other than the overall vibe, you need to unpack each picture to decide on what about it really thrills you.

With the below picture, there is an overall gorgeous feeling, but let’s dive into it.

My advice: go bottom-up. Check out the pathways, then the beds, and what material they’re made out of. Next, examine the trellises, fences, and any structures, buildings, or arches. Then you can dig into the actual plants they have and how those are arranged. You’ll begin to see even more detail than before, as well as more patterns. Follow the patterns to reveal what you really want.

As evidenced here, what I typically find is that the materials can be humble, with a beautiful finish when the garden begins to be planted and really lived in.

kitchen garden
Source: houseandgarden.co.uk

Our Overall Vibe

The overall vibe for our space is very much informed by a french potager meets cottage garden aesthetic. There will be pots layered in after the fact, pea gravel for walkways, and colorful borders (the cottage vibe). We love a layered look that has character and interest, so when you’re building something from scratch, you have to add that in.

We will try to mix stone and metal with the wood and create a lot of natural texture that gives the garden a lot of dimension. We don’t want a one-note space that is just flat and uniform. The key is to really solidify some of the structures and statements, then go from there.

Our Statement Pieces

As mentioned, below are the statement pieces that we will have. Adding the plants in will make it all come to life, but these big pieces will be necessary first.

  • Boxwood hedges
  • Arch trellis entryway
  • Pots at the entryway with dwarf citrus
  • Stone fountains
  • Wooden raised beds (18″ tall)
  • Wooden and metal obelisk trellises

Kitchen gardens around the world all look different. We of course could just plop down some fresh soil and grow in-ground if we wanted to, but love having something more formal to really invite guests and the children into. We want the space to have some polish, but also do want some major function out of it. Also a part of the raised bed choice.

Form and function at it’s finest!

For more raised bed inspo,see our roundup HERE.

TAGS:garden designkitchen gardenpotager
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Hi I’m Bailey

Hi I’m Bailey

Teaching you how to grow veggies in any space while show you how to live a garden-inspired life.

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There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better. 

To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you. 

Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc. 

Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing. 

What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations. 

There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building. 

Lean in.
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better.

To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you.

Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc.

Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing.

What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations.

There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building.

Lean in.

3 days ago
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1/4
Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨. 

Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises! 

There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨.

Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises!

There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.

5 days ago
View on Instagram |
2/4
House hunting priorities went from ‘open floor plan’ to ‘open land’ after I started gardening. I didn’t have this passion when we got married - my poor husband. 

It’s a tall order in Southern California and arguably not a thing unless you’re the multi-millionaire kind of wealthy (we’re not). So, I wanted to leave the state. Also not a thing when you own a business here. So, I wanted just enough space for a few garden boxes. 

On the listing for this house, there was no shown space for a garden. But we came anyways, and found this empty patch of mulch. 

Time, vision, and a dedication to the dream ☁️. I also had like three other versions of this space before this one, just to keep me gardening well before I had raised beds. Who was around when I built berms?? 

Any garden design questions? Leave them here and I’ll answer them all 👇🏼

#gardendesign #raisedbeds #kitchengarden
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

House hunting priorities went from ‘open floor plan’ to ‘open land’ after I started gardening. I didn’t have this passion when we got married – my poor husband.

It’s a tall order in Southern California and arguably not a thing unless you’re the multi-millionaire kind of wealthy (we’re not). So, I wanted to leave the state. Also not a thing when you own a business here. So, I wanted just enough space for a few garden boxes.

On the listing for this house, there was no shown space for a garden. But we came anyways, and found this empty patch of mulch.

Time, vision, and a dedication to the dream ☁️. I also had like three other versions of this space before this one, just to keep me gardening well before I had raised beds. Who was around when I built berms??

Any garden design questions? Leave them here and I’ll answer them all 👇🏼

#gardendesign #raisedbeds #kitchengarden

2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
3/4
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). 

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. 

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one.  For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. 
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. 

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. 

And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. 

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. 

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. 

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). 

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. 

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one.  For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. 
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. 

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. 

And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. 

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. 

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. 

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). 

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. 

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one.  For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. 
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. 

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. 

And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. 

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. 

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. 

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course).

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own – a space for her dream to be worked at.

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself.
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going.

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally.

And I have come to realize that our rooms – whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions.

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts – solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love.

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there.

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘

2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
4/4

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