How to Create a Memorial Garden

A memorial garden is something I never really thought about…until I lost Sam. 

Losing Sam brought a lot of things into my life that I’ve never thought about. And a memorial garden is one of them. 

Creating a memorial garden is something I’ve wanted to do for a few years, but we were renting the house when we lost Sam and I didn’t want to put something in there knowing that we would be leaving soon. 

Now that we have our own house I’m so excited to turn our front flower bed into a beautiful memorial garden for my Sam!

I love nature and having a place to go sit and be with Jesus and Sam brings my heart so much joy. 

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If a memorial garden is something you’d like to do to in memory of your loved one and to have a peaceful place to go sit and pray and think about your loved one that has passed on, then keep reading on how to get started!

How do you make a memorial garden?

Pick out where it’s going to be 

The first thing you need to do to set up a memorial garden is figure out where you’re going to put it. 

There are a few things you can think of when picking out the location:

• View – Do you have a gorgeous view of a pond or the mountains in the distance? That might be a good place to set up your memorial garden. 
• Convenience – You want to be able to conveniently get to your garden. If you have to walk a long way or it’s hard to get to the memorial garden, you might not go as often. 
• Using what you have – Is there a garden that’s already started and you can just modify it? 

My plan is to use our existing front garden bed. Since it’s already laid out, it’ll be super easy to transition it into a memorial garden.

Create boundaries

If you’re starting fresh with your memory garden, then you’ll need to lay out the boundary of the garden. 

You can do this by using rocks, bricks, a small picket fence, sea shells, or cinder blocks.

If you’re using an already existing garden, then this step is easy for you! You just need to decide if you’d like to change the existing boundaries or keep it as is. 

Decide on color scheme

Before you start picking out the flowers and decorations for your memorial garden, you need to pick out your color scheme. 

Colors are very important! It’s psychologically proven that colors make you feel certain things. 

So you can think of what feeling you want to feel as you sit out in your garden and then pick the color that matches that emotion. 

What do you put in a memorial garden?

Flowers

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of a garden?

Flowers of course!

I go into more details of the different types of flowers you can choose for your garden below.

Seating

One of the main things you’ll need in your garden is a place to sit in the amazing garden you create and pray and be with Jesus and think about your loved one. 

There’s something so peaceful about sitting in a garden, surrounded by the smell of flowers, the sound of the buzzing bees, and the soft breeze blowing on your face.

A little peace of heaven.

This is a beautiful bench that will fit perfectly in your space!

I pray as you sit in the bench you pick out that Jesus will bring healing to your broken heart ?

Decor

In order to bring even more peace to your space, there are things that you can add besides the flowers!

• Fountain – Running water is such a peaceful sound! You can achieve this by putting in a small fountain.
• Bird Bath
• Memorial windchimes (I love this one!)
• Outdoor lighting – For all the times you want to sit out there in the cool of the evening.

Personalize the space 

This is where you can really get personal with your space. You can pick something out that is personal to the loved one you lost. 

You can get something that’s engraved with their name or pick something out that they love and place it in your garden. 

This is really a personal choice! Here are some great options to consider:

+Memorial Lantern
+Memorial Garden Stone
+Solar Memorial Garden Light
+Always Loved Never Forgotten

Also, Etsy is another place you can look for memorial garden decorations.

What is a good memorial plant for your garden?

Pick a plant by its name

You can choose flowers by their names as a special tribute to your loved one:

• Forget me nots
• Peace lily
• Gentle shepherd daylily
• Rosemary
• Evergreens

Pick a plant by the date

Did you know that the months of the year have flowers associated with it? If you have a special month you want to remember, you could pick out the flower associated with that month.

January – Carnation
February – Iris
March – Daffodil
April – Daisy
May – Lily of the Valley
June – Rose
July – Larkspur
August – Gladiolus
September – Aster
October – Marigold
November – Chrysanthemum
December – Poinsetta

Pick a plant by the color

As we learned above, different colors bring different emotions. So you can choose the flowers based on their color and the emotion you want them to bring. 

You can also pick a flower based on the favorite color of your loved one. 

Or if your loved one served in the military, then a touching tribute would be red, white, and blue flowers. 

Sketch Out the Design

Now that you’ve picked out all the pieces of your memorial garden, it’s time to put it all together! 

But before you go out and buy things, it’s important to have a plan. A sketch of the garden might be helpful for you. 

Now this doesn’t have to be elaborate, just sketch out where you’d like to put everything you’ve put out. This will help you figure out what to buy and how much of each thing to buy. 

After you’ve sketched out your plan and you feel good about the design, it’s time for the fun part..

Purchase your flowers, seating, and decor and get it all set up!

Now sit back and enjoy this special place you’ve created in memory of your loved one.