There is more to gardening than plain flowers, hedges and trees. With just a little imagination, you can create a beautiful and fun garden even your grandmother would enjoy. The Internet is loaded with lots of do-it-yourself ideas gardeners can use with some inspiration to create yards (front, back and side) that are fun, lively, inviting and so much more than just flowers, bushes and trees.

Reminder, there is more to gardening that just landscape, gardens. Gardening and its natural resources help purify our air to provide sustainable oxygen. Gardens need not be labor intensive. With the right plant in the right place, small gardens can be low maintenance and thrive despite our gardening skills or lack thereof.

Aside the need for the carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange, home gardens have many advantages beside the beauty they bring to our lives. They bring serenity and beauty to our everyday lives. Home-grown herb and veggie gardens provide healthy food to our tables, reducing the food cost. They create scenic spaces for relaxation and can provide homemade herbs and spices for cooking.

DIY ideas and projects are everywhere and gardening is no exception. Container gardening can include terracotta pots, flower beds and baskets. It is now chic (and cost effective) to build containers from discarded wood pallets, or use re-purposed items to enhance our gardens.

Gardens can be big or small with cozy benches, outdoor rocking chairs or small tables for intimate dinners or large farm tables to seat mom and dad, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and lots of cousins, young and old. Hang outdoor string lights above outdoor dining tables to create mood lighting for a few or large parties.

Use your imagination. Herbs planted in mason jars can be decorative and useful when planning dinners outdoors. Even a dead tree stump can become a beautiful planter for a variety of flowers.

If your gardening area has limited space, trellis and wooden decks and lighted windows can provide places to grow creeper plants, berries, and veggies, as well as add color and vigor to your yard. Wherever you plant your garden, remember most veggie plants and flower beds need a constant supply of sun and irrigation. Container gardening can provide growing area in small spaces.

Today's gardening has gone beyond your grandmother's traditional backyard garden. Use a little imagination and creativity to not only grow fresh and healthy fruits, veggies, herbs, and flowers but get creative, add color and whimsy to your garden to bring enjoyment beyond to your landscape.