Summer Decorating Ideas for an Apartment Patio: A Romantic Tuscan Garden

Imagine yourself sitting in a romantic Mediterranean-style garden filled with lush growing herbs and delicate flowers. The warm night air brushes your skin with a delightful mixture of exotic fragrances. The casual, yet beautiful, setting puts your mind at ease and allows your body to rest after a long day at work. Now imagine that this sensuous place was situated right outside your apartment door.

Tuscan gardens are named after the region in Italy called Tuscany. Tuscany is well known for its rich agriculture, rustic cooking and its Chianti wine district. It is home to the romantic cities of Florence and Pisa. Your own Tuscan garden should reflect that and contain lush foliage, herbs and flowers.

It's easy to turn any size patio into a romantic Tuscan garden and it doesn't have to be expensive either.

With the current trend in plastic faux pottery you can find some very interesting pieces that only look expensive and can be left outdoors all year long without cracking from extreme changes in weather.

Tuscan gardens are well known for their plant filled pottery so this would be a good place to start. Pick up a few faux terra cotta styled pots of differing sizes or a couple of Grecian shaped urns. Of course you can use real clay pottery but keep in mind that if you live in a colder climate, these will need to be brought indoors for winter storage. Today's faux pottery looks so much like the real thing that for apartment dwellers, where space is a priority, it's silly to even consider using anything else and faux pottery is only a fraction of the cost of the ceramic type making it cost effective as well.