Gather your books, catalogues, magazines, camera, and sketchbook or garden organizer along with a few pens or markers to sketch with, and maybe a few sheets or roll of tracing paper because it's time to get creative!
1. Take a walk around the garden. Observe the architecture of the garden and the vertical and horizontal structure of the plants and hardscape elements without the distraction of foliage and flowers.
2. Take a few photos of your garden from different angles, from both inside the house and outside. Looking through a camera lens offers an entirely different perspective.
3. Head back inside and flip through your favorite garden books and magazines. Look for ideas that might work in your garden and bookmark them. 1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas
is filled with low-tech gardening hints and tips and well worth owning if you don’t already.
4. Make a plant wish list. Flip through your plant catalogues and earmark anything and everything you're interested in. Write the list down on a piece of paper or in your garden organizer or journal for future reference.
5. Paste the photos you took into your sketchbook or garden organizer leaving plenty of room to add notes for ideas around the picture. If you're handy with a pen lay a piece of trace paper over the photographs and sketch out some ideas.