Everything but the Rain : Garden tools, statuary and potted flowers are no longer on the outside looking in. They’re finally being welcomed into the house.

You don’t need a green thumb, or even a yard, to cultivate a charming garden complete with potted plants, rustic wooden benches, cement statuary and even a quaint watering can or two.

Everything for the garden short of a garden hose is now transplantable to the indoors. Garden-minded interiors make use of items traditionally found in nurseries, from weathered-looking wheelbarrows to birdbaths.

There are gardening tools, especially rusty-looking antique ones, designed for displaying on a bookshelf instead of digging up the earth. There are decorative watering cans that don’t water the plants--they sit on a coffee table looking pretty. Most of all, there are lots of pots filled with flowers, herbs and plants that thrive out of the sun. Where real plants won’t survive, silk ones are used.

Family rooms and dens have been transformed into secret gardens, where one can retreat from the pressures of the modern world.

“Life is so stressful, even with all of our modern conveniences. Gardening is always relaxing, even if you don’t have a garden,” says Eric Cortina, buyer for Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. “To sit in a chair and look at your potted plants is relaxing.”

Interior designers have been creating garden looks in homes for several years, says Jill Scheetz, an interior designer in Laguna Hills. “Once people became more aware of the environment, it started the trend,” she says. “Now it’s available to the masses.”

Since gift shops, nursery boutiques and florists have caught on to the gardening theme, it’s been growing like, well, a weed.

People are surrounding themselves with all kinds of items that once sat in the yard. At Roger’s Gardens, they’re buying up antique watering cans embellished with hand-painted designs.

“They’re not putting them outdoors because they’re afraid they’d rust,” Cortina says. Some are taking huge urns--the kind that typically belong on patios or outdoor entries--and using them to adorn an indoor landing or anchor a corner of a room. Because these urns look like they’re made of concrete but are actually lightweight fiberglass, they’re designed for indoor use. Other decorators are setting up indoor birdbaths.

“You can float flowers in them,” Cortina says.

Pots in all shapes and materials, including cement, tin and clay, are an important part of the garden look. Some decorators group terra-cotta plants on bookshelves or in the kitchen and fill them with live herb or bulb plants. Just don’t mix shiny tin accessories with rustic clay ones.

“Stay with one look so that your containers and accessories go together,” Cortina says.

Square terra-cotta planters, hand-thrown terra-cotta pots from England and Portuguese pottery are among the plant containers that people are using indoors and out, says Amy Iverson, manager of Smith & Hawken, an upscale nursery in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa.

“We have old pots from Europe that actually have moss still growing in them,” Iverson says.

Virtually anything one can dig up out of the yard can somehow be adapted for the interior. Wooden trellises, wheelbarrows filled with potted plants and rustic garden stakes are among the things now acceptable indoors, says Cheri David, owner of the Cheri gift boutique in Fashion Island, Newport Beach.

“An antique cart could make a coffee table with glass on top. So could a chicken coop,” David says. “Rustic metal patio furniture is very elegant indoors with some off-white cushions.” A wooden bench painted and sanded to look like it has been sitting out in the rain or sun can be used in a den for a love seat.

“It brings in a bit of homeyness,” she says. “It’s fluffing your nest.” To get the right effect when creating an indoor garden, imagine that the walls separating the garden and the interior don’t exist.

“The look blurs the line between the outdoors and indoors,” Scheetz says.

Among the items she uses to cultivate a garden theme: ivy, vine or floral prints on draperies, pillows and furniture upholsteries; trompe l’oeil finishes on interior walls so they look like they’re crawling with vines or textured glazes to make the interior wall look like a weathered exterior wall, and aged-looking iron furnishings, including mirrors, cocktail tables and end tables.

“You don’t want to do a garden room and have it look brand spanking new,” Scheetz says. “The urns should look like they have mold. Everything should look like it’s been outdoors.”

Plants, whether living or beautiful dried arrangements, are crucial, she says.

“Don’t use the cheap silk plants with the shiny leaves,” she says. Use only high-quality silk plants if you’re going to use them at all.

If the room looks out on a balcony or terrace, add potted plants or topiaries outdoors so they can be viewed from the inside. By drawing the eye outside, it will make the garden-themed room look larger.

“People forget to do things with those spaces,” Scheetz says. “The garden should complement the interior.”

Garden themes work best in rooms that look out onto a patio, terrace or garden.

“It won’t work if the room has shutters or vertical blinds that obstruct the view to the outdoors,” says Mary Swift, a Laguna Hills interior designer.

She recommends using flowers of the same color indoors and out to blend the interior with the exterior. Decorators can even match the upholstery on their outdoor patio furniture with the fabric used indoors.

A favorite color used in garden decors: green, naturally.

“Use colors indoors that occur in nature,” Swift says. “Black and white won’t work.”