15 Rustic Garden Design Ideas That Are Truly Charming

While it's easy to admire a formal garden, there is nothing more homey than a rustic garden. With an undone quality that looks organic and unplanned, rustic gardens have a relaxing and nonchalant quality that makes them perfect for your backyard, front yard, side yard or even city terrace.

Whether it's a DIY herb garden planter made from recycled wood palets, a set of vintage garden furniture, or a painted birdhouse, check out these simple ideas for adding some effortless rustic charm to your outdoor space.

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Incorporate Vintage Furniture

Lobster and Swan

This rustic English cottage garden from Lobster and Swan has a greenhouse at the center outfitted with weathered vintage metal furniture and accessories that lend it a timeless quality.

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Raise the Vegetable Garden

My 100 Year Old Home

Raised planters made from natural wood add a rustic touch to this Southern California backyard vegetable garden from My 100 Year Old Home. For DIY garden projects, consider using affordable and eco-friendly repurposed wood palets.

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Follow the Garden Path

Design by Emily Henderson Design / Photo by Sara Ligorria-Tramp

One way to add rustic notes to the backyard is to embrace asymmetry and imperfection rather than formal landscaping. This backyard from Emily Henderson Design has a winding stone path that leads to the play area, lined with a random assortment of grasses, plants, and flowering bushes of varying heights and volumes that add texture and enhance the natural feel.

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Use Natural Landscaping Around the Pool

Design by Leanne Ford Interiors / Photo by Amy Neunsinger

This rustic California canyon home from Leanne Ford Interiors is made from rough wood and stone, with an organic stone-lined pool in the garden that is surrounded by a variety of lush green plants of varying shapes and sizes that perfectly complement the rustic architecture of the home.

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Use Mismatched Pots

Lobster and Swan

Nothing says rustic garden like a bunch of weathered, mismatched plant pots lined up on an old stone wall, like this English cottage garden from Lobster and Swan.

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Transform a City Terrace

Fantastic Frank

You don't have to live in the countryside to create a rustic garden effect. This city terrace on the Spanish island of Mallorca from Fantastic Frank is transformed into a rustic garden with a stone floor and generous plantings of potted greenery at varying heights around the periphery that create the illusion of a slightly overgrown backyard oasis. Comfortable modern indoor outdoor furniture adds contrast without detracting from the natural feel.

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Add Hanging Planter Baskets

My 100 Year Old Home

Rustic wire hanging baskets planted with begonias and petunias add height to this backyard green space from My 100 Year Old Home that is inspired by the undone charm of an English garden.

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Install a Bench

Design by Emily Henderson Design / Photo by Sara Ligorria-Tramp

To help you and others admire your handiwork, be sure to install seating in the garden, like this rustic painted bench in the front yard of this home from Emily Henderson Design that complements the architecture of the house.

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Repurpose Galvanized Stock Tanks

Most Lovely Things

Repurposing industrial pieces, whether new or vintage, is an easy way to add rustic notes to your garden. This home garden from Most Lovely Things was built using repurposed galvanized stock tanks filled with tomato plants, herbs, and flower seeds that keep plantings safe from wild rabbits and require minimal weeding.

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Add a Fountain

Fantastic Frank

A rustic patterned tile fountain and a pair of ornate vintage metal garden chairs creates a dreamy backyard escape in this historic Spanish home from Fantastic Frank. Vintage fountains of all sizes and styles make a perfect addition to a rustic garden, whether functional or simply decorative. To find one, try a local architectural salvage company.

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Dine in the Herb Garden

Most Lovely Things

Blogger Annie Diamond of Most Lovely Things likes to host dinners by setting a garden-inspired table and serving dishes that showcase the bounty of her galvanized stock tank herb garden in the background.

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Add a DIY Weathered Finish

My 100 Year Old Home

Using weathered terracotta pots is a sure way to add a rustic feel to your garden. But if you can't get your hands on some, you can also add a weathered patina to new terracotta pots to lend them some vintage cachet using garden lime, like these DIY aged garden pots from My 100 Year Old Home.

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Add Woodland Whimsy

Design by Emily Henderson Design / Photo by Tessa Neustadt

To add some rusticity to a backyard patio garden like this one from Emily Henderson Design, simple touches like adding a pair of mushroom statuettes adds some woodland whimsy that will delight kids of all ages.

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Plant the Staircase

Thistlewood Farms

If you have a wide enough front staircase, you can treat it like an extension of the garden by lining it with potted plants or flowers in vintage urns, and layering in vintage objects and hurricane lanterns to create a weathered look, like this front staircase from Thistlewood Farms.

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Add a Backyard Birdhouse

Design by Becca Interiors

In the lush green backyard of this Colonial home along New York's Hudson River from Becca Interiors, a two-story birdhouse painted in the same colors as the main house adds charm and helps keep feathered friends and neighbors fed and happy.