I love my garden. It’s the one place in the whole world that I can just sit and be. I can hear the birds, watch the bumble bees and enjoy the plants – all in one peaceful place.
It can also get very noisy as we live on a main road so I get about three hours of complete silence in it every day. Other than that it’s usually filled with traffic noise and the neighbours kid playing music loudly.
While it’s possible to get accustomed to the constant drone it can be difficult to find serenity in the garden with so much noise.
However I’ve found a few tricks that help me get the best possible harmony in the garden at all times and I thought I’d share it with you so that you may also find a place of peace in your space.
- Wind chimes – you can have many or just one. Spend a little money on it though so it produces a sound rather than a tin drum being knocked. I’ve got a bamboo one and I’ve placed it at the end of the garden so I can hear it but not too loudly.
- Running water – if you’ve got room for a full blown waterfall then all the better but any fountain or expanse of water you can channel into a spurt makes a wonderful noise in the garden and is extremely relaxing to listen to, especially on a hot summer day.
- Bird bath – this and the following two ideas are to simply get birds into your garden by any means because there is just nothing as beautiful as hearing birds in your garden. It doesn’t have to be a huge decorative structure, a simple elevated plastic dish will be perfect for the birds.
- Bird feeding station – feeding all year round helps the birds and its nice to see who will come and visit your garden at different times of the year.
- Tree – space is a consideration and I would never have thought of planting a tree in our size garden but we had a eucalyptus that was growing in a container and kept falling over so we decided to plant it into the ground. I planted it as far away from the house and other buildings as I could and boy has that tree grown! Now it’s created a two fold habitat. It breaks the air space up for birds travelling through so land in the tree while tweeting away, and it makes a lovely sound when the wind rustles through it. Any space can have a tree in it – even if it’s in a container, it’s just about picking the right tree for the right space.
- Trellis and climbing plants – I’m in the process of getting this set up. If you can extend your fence by a trellis all well and good as this can hide those pesky neighbours and allows you to grow climbers up it to mask some of the noise.
- Screening material – If you have any open style gates (or balcony) around your property you can get willow screening to help reduce noise. It really works and it looks nice as well, plus it’s cheaper than installing solid gates.
Cover photo courtesy of Kaveh Khodjasteh
The Forget-me-Not Cultivation Blog 
Lovely post Sophie many thanks for sharing
Thanks Linda, hope all is well with you?
There are some Bamboo wind chimes in the schools’ Courtyard garden and the sound they produce is very calming – could be the answer to our problem with a constantly barking dog in a neighbouring garden. Mind you the dog’s so stupid it’d probably bark every time the chimes sounded 😉
Oh no, a dog constantly barking – now that is a noise that’s hard to ignore. Give the wind chimes a go, you never know – it might at least ‘distract’ the noise for a while. 😉
You right Sophie garden is a second home where the weather is good and I love to be in mine too.
You can’t beat it…everything that is there is there because you’ve planted, sown or put it there. It’s like your own little creation 🙂
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loved this article! I have wind chimes – nice tones – one on each end of my large living room window that sound very relaxing when there’s a breeze. 🙂 I read and enjoy this blog as a way of enriching my life – it brings a garden into my apartment. ty 🙂
Thank you. Pleased to hear you liked it, and the rest of the blog. I just think sometimes it can be hard to appreciate quietness in a ‘green’ space if there is constant annoying noise and sounds. Much nicer to try and get the mind and ears to focus on the more natural sounds. Yes wind chimes by a window – perfect! I forgot about that. I must do that again. I don’t think you can beat the gentle tones of them for relaxation.
I love my (backyard) garden too. Right now it’s full of mosquitoes so the refuge is the screened porch. The yard and garden has been a lot of work this summer, but it’s worth it. I love hearing all the frogs, birds, cicada chorus, etc. I’m sorry there aren’t as many bees and butterflies as there used to be. Thanks for the garden tips —
It’s the same over here re. the bees and butterflies – we just have to make sure they have all the encouragement they need to come back. We’ve got a bee campaign over here to make more people plant flowers that are ideal for both bees and butterflies. I found it really helpful when I was deciding what plants to buy or sow this yr. Having said that the weather is making a huge impact. Last yr we had masses of lady birds, this year I haven’t seen one! But this yr masses of butterflies…who know’s what next yr will bring!
It must be really lovely to hear frogs and cicadas. Not something we get here – I am presuming it must be pretty hot where you are right now?