Set Yourself Apart: Create Your Own Wind Chime Garden

by Stephen Betzen

If you are one who enjoys sound integrated into your outdoor view, you might want to consider creating a wind chime garden – it will set your view to music. A wind chime garden can cover the entire area of your back yard, or be limited to a small section of your backyard landscape – the choice is up to you. The beauty of a wind chime garden is that you can design it to be uniquely your own – you decide on wind chime placement, tone and style. Following are a few ideas to get you started thinking about how you might implement a wind chime garden into your outdoor scenery.

1) Select spots for your wind chimes throughout your yard, paying close attention to the direction and patterns of the wind. Through proper placement, you could create your own gentle, whimsical outdoor concert.

2) Choose wind chimes that are simple in appearance to void clashes in décor styles. This way, they will effortlessly blend in wherever they are placed. When it comes to wind chimes, it's more about the sound than the look. In fact, many of the more decorative types of wind chimes are not made in such a way that allows for the same pristine sound quality as those of a simple aluminum design.

3) Create a wind chime garden by hanging your chimes at different heights. For example, place a set of wind chimes up on a deck, another in a smaller tree line and yet another among your flowers. The sound will dance with depth across your yard each time a breeze blows through.

4) If you like the look of wind chimes and want them in your sight, hang them where they will reflect the sun as it comes up in the morning and moves down at night. Aluminum wind chime gardens go well with stone décor, flowing water (like in a water fall or a bird bath), and near evergreens.

5) Sprinkle your wind chime garden with dream catchers, bird houses and sculptures. This will provide additional visual aesthetics while providing areas of mass for the wind chime sound to bounce off of – depending on the frequency and directions of your breezes, you could hear an entirely new sound when least expected.

6) If you have a street that runs near your house carrying a lot of traffic noise, consider concentrating your wind chime garden on the side of your yard that borders that particular street. You might want to mingle taller flowers and designer grasses with bold toned wind chimes to create a sound barrier. Then, place lighter toned wind chimes nearer the house, radiating from the outside edge of the wind chime border. This additional placement of wind chimes will further soften any traffic sounds that do happen to make it through.

7) Create a living wind chime garden by incorporating sight, sound, smell, and touch into a selected area – preferably the one you will spend the most time in. This can act a stress relieving vista – the place you go to unwind at the end of each day. Your wind chimes provide the sound and partner with the other elements in the area to form a pleasant sight. The scent sense can be aroused by floral elements and touch can be integrated into the wind chime garden in the form of comfortable seating. Light a large candle or burn a fire in a metal fire pit to create a romantic aura.

8) Incorporate wind chimes in your flower garden on sections of wrought iron trellis or hang them inside the upper areas of a gazebo. Place them near doorways and breezeways for a special effect as guests come and go – wind chimes are quite welcoming upon arrival and a pleasant good-bye upon departure.

9) Create an outdoor room, placing your wind chime garden in an area beyond the main seating area so that the chimes ring as gentle background music to engaging conversations or star gazing. What is an outdoor room? It is a concept that is growing in popularity -- a fully-furnished space, complete with a fire place or fire pit, a wet bar and even rugs. The area is “walled in” by trellises, potted plants, stone half-walls, etc. A wind chime garden that sits just beyond the “room” adds an unparalleled ambiance to an evening “out.”

Regardless of your preferred decorating style – whether it is southwest décor, country home décor, fen shui home decorating or something else – a wind chime garden can be a unique and relaxing part of your outdoor spaces. The best part of creating a wind chime garden is that you can make it as unique as you are. Show off your personality using the scents, sights, and sounds of nature and wind chimes as your personal creative tools.

Tuned Wind Chimes Stephen Betzen is a loving husband/supporter/and friend to his wife Rachel Betzen. Rachel and Stephen are dedicated to socially and ethically responsible business practices. Lovers of gardening and simple living. They own and operate an online wind chimes store.