A garden is one of the few places in the world where we can relax and enjoy the peace and quiet, if only for 5 minutes. However, with the stresses and busyness of today, designing our perfect dream garden can often get put on the back burner for years and years. Now that it’s winter, it’s the perfect time to think about what you want to do with your garden ready for next summer. That means you can spend more time relaxing, and less time upheaving all of your garden furniture and accessories! Here are some tips to help you design the garden of your dreams:
Know Your Garden Inside Out
If you’ve got a well established garden, live with it for a year if you haven’t already. This is so you get the full picture of everything that likes to grow and thrive in your garden at different times of year. Make sure you identify all plants and learn about the growing conditions they like. Photos are essential for remembering the plants and what your garden looked like with them!
Soil is another important thing you should consider when learning about your garden. Buy yourself a soil testing kit so you can learn whether yours is acid, alkaline, or neutral. Make sure you do tests on different areas in your garden as it can vary from place to place!
Consider The Main Uses of Your Garden
What do you want your garden to be used for? There are many things you could try to centre your garden around; socialising, entertaining children, and growing vegetables to name just a few.
Obviously, you’ll want some pretty and interesting plants in your garden design. However, the layout is probably even more important! For example, if you want an area for entertaining guests you need to make sure you allow space for everybody to relax without stepping on your Petunias.
If you’re designing your garden with children in mind, remember that their needs will change as they grow older, so your garden should be able to. You could always install a fun sand pit for the kids to play in, but with some clever pre-planning that pit could be transformed into a pond later on.
Designing Your Garden
One of the best ways to begin designing your garden is to grab a pencil and a sketch pad and sketch it out. A garden that has been well designed will have strong outlines, and use multiple shapes, layers and patterns. It should look good before you even add the plants!
-
Make sure you carefully measure your garden.
-
Use a compass to make your drawing more accurate.
-
If you have trouble, you can always hire a company offering landscape services.
To update your garden in an even simpler way, you could simply add/update a few accessories and notice a world of difference. Decking can help to create a modern space, while a garden firepit is perfect for entertaining friends as it creates such a cosy atmosphere. Designing the garden of your dreams will take time, but when the summer comes you’ll be so glad you did it!
