Having trouble deciding what to do in your yard?

There are many ways to organize and design a garden, but a very useful method is to design and develop a garden around a specific theme, such as an Herb Garden, Butterfly Garden, Hummingbird Garden, Medicinal Garden, Food Garden, Cutting Garden, Meadow Garden, Wildlife Garden, Native Garden, and many more.

Here are some theme garden ideas to jump-start your creativity and get you started on your own theme garden adventure. Most of the plants mentioned are available at your local well-stocked nursery and garden center or at online nurseries.

Butterfly Garden

One of the most popular of theme gardens and good way to enjoy the company of butterflies, and attract swarms of them, is by planting a butterfly theme garden, or habitat. The perfect butterfly habitat is a simple one, and even the smallest garden can provide the food, water, perches, and shelter butterflies need. It's easy to lure these beautiful insects into your backyard - and keep them coming back year after year if...read on

Hummingbird Garden

One good way to enjoy the company of hummingbirds, and attract many of them, is planting a hummingbird theme garden, or habitat. In addition to providing them a natural diet, a hummingbird garden is an excellent way to attract birds to your nearby feeder: since hummingbirds feed by sight on regularly followed routes called traplining. Their inquisitive nature will quickly lead them to investigate any possible new source of food...read on

Color Gardens

One of the funnest theme gardens to plant is a color garden. You can plant multi-color gardens that incorporate several different colors, or a mono color garden that will concentrate on one color. Half the fun is is finding plants that suit the needs of your color theme...read on

Herb Garden

Little wonder that herbs have earned a place in American gardens. Freshly harvested herbs have pungent and aromatic qualities that far exceed those of their commercially obtained counterparts - whether fresh or dried. Even after the outdoor growing season is over, you can still enjoy dried herbs in fragrant potpourris and sachets. You can also grow herbs indoors in pots on sunny windowsills, and use them for culinary purposes, either fresh, dried, or frozen. You will enjoy growing herbs because their culture is easy. They require little care and space, have very few insect and disease problems, and generally require only moderate fertility levels. Above all, herbs provide you with a continuing and satisfying hobby...read on

Kitchen Gardens

Kitchen gardens are grown outdoors in the garden and are essential to many gourmet chefs and food aficionados. Your first thought of a kitchen garden may be of herbs, but don't overlook salad greens and vegetables...read on

Remedy Garden

Try your hand at growing the family's medicine chest. You'll find an enormous selection of herbs with medicinal values. The medicinal properties of herbs are well documented, but you do need to be aware of possible interactions with your prescription medicines. Consult your physician before combining and ingesting herbs and prescriptions. Be cautious of information you find regarding herbs as medicines while surfing the Internet; unless the source of the information is scholarly or from a known authority, you may getting poor advice. Find information about processing herbs and dosages at your local library. Books by author Euell Gibbons are very reliable. If you plan to use plants to support health, we urge you to do some research first. Try published books, clinical trials and studies of the active constituents of plants. All plants are chemically complex: Their actions may be gentle or quite dramatic. As with anything you will ingest or put on your skin, be sensible, do no harm and be responsible in your approach to using plants for medicine.

Celebrity or Name Garden

Many varieties of roses, peony, day lilies, and iris are named after celebrities. Sarah Bernhardt peony is one that most gardeners are familiar with. Other flowering plants have more ordinary names such as johnny-jump-up and Sweet William. You might also like to focus on the names of royalty, as in Queen Anne's Lace - a North American Native wildflower. Maybe study up on Thomas Jefferson and duplicate some of the features in his garden in your own.

Edible Flowers Garden

Kids will love to eat flowers, but this one is really an adult project. Young children have trouble distinguishing between the edible flowers in the garden and all the other flowers. Use your common sense with edible flowers and don't eat ones that have mud on them or were sprayed with pesticides. Don't pick flowers by the roadside to eat. They have been exposed to automobile exhaust and there are too many unknowns to make them safe to eat.

Only eat the petals of flowers, not the stamens or pistils. Most importantly, do not eat any flower that you think is safe; only eat the ones you know for sure are okay to ingest. Among the edible flowers, the most common are garlic blossoms, chive blossoms, bachelor button, bee balm, burnet, calendula, carnation, chamomile, chrysanthemum, dandelion, day lily, geranium, honeysuckle, pansy, nasturtium, petunia, rose, snapdragon, sunflower and violets.

Native Species Garden

For those gardeners who like a treasure hunt the all-native garden is just the right garden. In this garden you will search for those plants indigenous to your region. Include your state flower. Well-stocked local nursery and garden centers will have many native plants to get you started. This type of garden often needs less tending because the plants have adapted themselves to your growing conditions.