Industrial gardens were popular for a while, and then they fizzled out. However, their popularity is being rekindled by a mix of nostalgia and fascination from older generations and younger generations respectively. If you want to transform your traditional flower garden into a more industrial garden, the following tips should help.

Less Green, More Grey

In a sort of reverse of the grassy-area-in-the-city landscaping design plan, the industrialist garden has much more grey, copper, steel, and other metal colors in it. It also has much more metal than grass or flowers. That said, lawn ornaments made from various metals can really help transform your yard into the industrial garden you are hoping for.

Metals and Metal Objects

Anything metal that looks like a salvage piece or something that someone recycled could work in your industrial garden. Coffee-can bird feeders are a popular addition, as are bird baths made from old metal water fountains. In fact, if you can get the water fountain to continue spouting water out into the fountain's catch basin, and then it becomes a conversation piece as well as a functional addition to your industrial garden.

Other metal objects can include:

• Aluminum horses and other metal menagerie animals
• Metal lawn ornaments made from recycled soda cans, which can also provide a splash of color in your greyed-down landscape
• Chrome fenders mounted to steel stovepipes to act as bird feeders
• Metal storage sheds that mimic the appearance of full-sized warehouses
• Washers and nuts embedded in concrete for walkways, patios and stepping stones
• Pot-bellied stoves in place of outdoor burning pits and campfires
• Riveted roofing panels as fencing panels

Contact a company like Outdoor Living At Saratoga for additional ideas.

As you and your landscape artist begin to plan the yard, keep thinking about industrial objects and things fabricated from all kinds of metals. If you want to add a little color, burnished copper, steel heated to certain temperatures, and natural metal patinas can all be used to create metal flowers, metal trees and even metal decorations for your natural trees.

Industrial Gardens Can Be as Beautiful as Greenery

If executed properly, an industrial garden can be as beautiful as a traditional garden filled with flowers, shrubbery, bushes, and trees. Fabricating some nearly realistic and useful garden items and combining them with fantastical metal objects can really make a unique garden space. The best part is that industrial gardens are less maintenance. They require no watering and are typically hypoallergenic too. For anyone who would like more outdoors with less allergic response, the industrial garden is the solution.