I love going on garden tours, both to admire beautiful spaces and to get ideas for my own gardens. And, I always pick up a few garden tips while admiring the handiwork of other gardeners. Here are five garden tips from this year’s tours that you might want to try in your gardens next year.

Pick a statement pot. Containers always look fabulous when a home is on tour, but it’s not just the plants. Great gardeners tend to choose statement pots to put near the front of their home. The containers may be colorful or have a unique design or interesting shape or a theme that goes with the rest of the garden. With a great container, you can choose more simple plants and it will still look sweet. Statement containers can be pricy, but you can often find deals at consignment shops, online giveaway sites or during end of the season sales at nurseries and garden centers. Unlike the annual plants you put in them, containers will last for years and are a good investment in your garden.

Add sound with a fountain. Gardens are sensory spaces and adding plants and features that inspire people to touch, smell or listen to the garden makes the experience of it more meaningful. Fountains can be as simple as “the world’s easiest water feature” or something much more complex. Garden centers and online retailers have tons of options or buy the fountain and pump and create your own.

Plant shrubs for texture. One of the garden tips I picked up from a tiny jewel of a garden in Minneapolis this year was that you don’t need a lot of color to create interest if you have texture galore. This garden was filled with evergreen shrubs of all sizes, shapes and needle types. The shrubs — and a stellar water feature — created a soothing atmosphere that made you forget you were in the middle of the city.

Fences make great neighbors . . . with deer. This is another investment, but if you live near deer (and who doesn’t?) it’s worth it. On a larger property in one tour, the homeowner had chosen a sunny spot and fenced the entire thing in, then added raised beds. The vegetable garden was lush and ringed with beebalm and other flowering perennials. It looked great and there wasn’t a sign of deer damage.

Take it to the street. If your space is tight, don’t hesitate to plant your boulevard. We have lots of good advice on boulevard gardens and as long as you aren’t interfering with car sight lines or the safety of walkers and bikers, go to town. I especially liked this suburban garden that was a pollinator haven from curb to curb. Looking for more garden tips from tours? Check out our previous posts here, here and here.

Mary Lahr Schier is a long-time Minnesota garden writer and author of The Northern Gardener: From Apples to Zinnias.

Photo credit: Mary Lahr Schier.