What is Your True Garden Personality and Style? A Questionnaire




Every year you go out in Spring, determined that this will be when you get your yard all put together. One beautiful Saturday morning you go to the garden center and buy whatever looks good at the moment.  You plant it all up and  - tired but happy - you say 'this will be great'.

But the moment passes and it doesn't quite do the trick.. Maybe it is because you should first find YOUR TRUE GARDEN PERSONALITY....

Landscape architect, Shelley Sparks, of Harmony Gardens (check out her great website - click here ) in California has this wonderful questionnaire on her website. It helps you determine what will resonate with you in your garden.  She has synthesized so much, its impressive.

Shelley's stated mission on her website is also illuminating. She writes, 'through garden design I want to entice people into their gardens so that they can experience the delight and positive emanations from their garden.'  I like that.

Harmony Gardens' Questionnaire


1. How much privacy is important to you?

a. I am a private person and don’t like to be too close to my neighbors

b. I am fairly private and while I like to talk to neighbors, I don’t want to socialize too much with them

c. I love to be part of everything. I have had neighbors as best friends and love to socialize with them as well as others.

Jim's Garden - Coreopsis and Spiderwort


2. Which aspect of your home are you most happy with?

a. It’s cozy and comfortable.

b. My house is very stylish. It is fashionable and hip.

c. My house is so exciting. Everywhere I look I am delighted by what I see.

d. My house is elegant. It is what some people call formal but I think of it as traditional.

e. My house is flexible. I can dress it up or dress it down and I love to move things around.

Blue Bayou Mix Impatiens and perennial salvia - Jan Johnsen


3. Which of your senses is most important to you?

a. Vision

b. Smell

c. Touch

d. Hearing

e. Taste




4. What element of yourself would you like to see more balanced?


a. I tend to be moody and want to hide away?

b. I overwork and overstress?

c. Sometimes I am moody and reclusive and other times overworked and stressed.

Claire's antique planter with  pansies

5. What types of rooms do you like best?

a. I love rooms that open, light and airy. I need to open windows and see outside.

b. I am never happier than when I can find a warm darkish corner to curl up and think about life and its opportunities.

c. I like combinations of both types of rooms. Many times I like open airy rooms and other times I am in the mood for quiet peaceful spaces.

Heliotrope Fragrant Delight

6. What is your lifestyle like?

a. I am a family person. I love to spend time with my family and invite friends over for fun.

b. I’m too busy for entertaining. Let others have parties. I need a place to unwind and relax.

c. I’m a jock. I love to be active sometimes on my own and sometimes with others.

d. I like to putter around. I like to garden and do crafts and experiment with different hobbies. It is a creative way to live.

e. I am involved in many organizations that like to use my house as a showcase to benefit them.


Shelley writes: "This section will help you structure the look and feeling of your garden based on what general theme you would like. If you have enough space on your property, you can pick two or three themes to express. This can only be the case if you separate the areas adequately."


7. I want a drought tolerant garden and would like to know what my options are.

a. I love being out on the prairie where the grasses are waving in the wind.

b. I was fascinated and delighted by the cactus garden I saw recently.

c. I would love to recreate the feeling of hiking or walking out in the wild areas of my state.

d. I have always loved those rock and sand gardens that the Japanese make. I would like to have a place where I can quietly enjoy the scene.

e. I would like to have a garden with a cottage feeling but that doesn’t require much water.


8. I dream about traveling to different parts of the world and would like to bring back a wonderful garden.

a. Every picture I have seen of Italy makes my heart sing. I would love to have the whole country transported here.

b. People in Spain and South America have such great outdoor entertaining spaces. I would really be happy with that.

c. The French are so sophisticated. It seems like all the best gardens started there.

d. England is so natural and the gardens seem as though they are not created but have always been like that. Even when you know they have put a lot of work into it, it is like a slice of nature.

e. I love the simple rock and sand gardens of Japan. I would like to have a place where I can contemplate and quietly enjoy thee surrounding.

f. I love the Greek classics. Their gardens are places that seem to lend to fun in a structured space.

g. Hawaii and everywhere tropical is my favorite weather. The feeling I get when I visit there even in my mind set me free.

Allerton gardens Kauai - all rights reserved Jan Johnsen

9. I love the idea of my garden being expressive of my style. I would like to have a theme garden in my yard.


a. My life is about romance. I want a love garden to attract a relationship or to express my love relationship

b. I could sit and watch the birds and bees all day. I just wish for a space where I can attract as many different kinds of birds and bees as possible.

c. I have a tiny space and yet I feel like my inner artist needs to be expressed in my garden. I would love to see my creative energies expressed.

d. My dream is to have my house seem like I am in the middle of a forest.

e. Fragrance is what rings my chime. No matter where I go, I smell plants to see if some wonderful aroma is coming my way.


Once you answer these questions you will know which kind of garden style is best for you - Shelley Sparks can help too. Just answer these on her site Harmony Gardens and hit the submit button there...



















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