Garden Design Tips

What kind of outdoor space do you want to acheive?

When planning your new garden layout, the first thing to ask yourself is what kind of outdoor space do I want to achieve? Is it a safe place for my children to play in, somewhere to entertain friends and family or a botanical haven full of colourful plants, fruits, and vegetables?

Once you know what you will be using your garden for, you can then allocate areas and space, accordingly, making sure it becomes the perfect space to suit everyone’s needs. 

Then you will need to draw up a specific plan to your garden’s measurements based on the overall garden design you are hoping to achieve. Once you have your measurements you can start sketching out the different areas of the garden. It’s always a good idea to start with the larger features such as patio areas, garden buildings and water features and then build the rest of the design around those. You will also need to think about the different routes and paths that you will want to incorporate around the garden, to make the best use of the space available. 

 

Understanding your garden

To unleash your garden’s full potential, it is vital that you understand the local climate, soil type and your garden’s aspect when planning your makeover. You do not want to spend a small fortune on flowers and shrubs that won’t be able to thrive in your type of soil, so it’s important to determine if your soil is predominantly chalk, clay, sand, peat or if you are lucky enough to have a loam-based soil. You should also consider testing the pH level of your soil to see if its acidic or alkaline and make sure you test different areas as it may vary across your garden. 

Your garden’s aspect will also play a big part in the planning process as you will not want to waste time building a new deck area in the shadiest part of the garden or to expose delicate plants and shrubs to the hottest corner of your flowerbeds. You can work this out by sketching the way the sun moves across your garden to find out if it is North, South, West or East facing and to also work out the best areas to designate for entertaining and growing for example. 

And remember, there are always jobs you should leave to the professionals such as installing or moving gas, electricity or water pipes.

Our branches nationwide have some fantastic landscaping displays which will help inspire you to create the perfect garden, as well as knowledgeable and approachable staff who will help you find exactly what you need to complete the job.

 

Simple tips to add the wow factor

And, if you decide you don’t want to undertake a complete redesign, then there are some very simple things you could think about in order to add a little extra wow factor to your existing space:

 

Add some new textures 

One way to make your garden more eye catching is to add more interesting things to look at (simple!). Jazz up your turf with new layers of, for instance, chippings or pebbles, for a quick and colourful uplift that’s hard to ignore.

You can get creative with the way you contribute them to your space, too. For instance, you could create a new path through your garden out of pebbles or highlight brilliantly blooming shrubs or flowers with a frame of colourful chippings. 

 

Throw in some levels

Sometimes all your garden needs is a little more accenting –drawing attention to its best features with the use of adding new heights and depths. For instance, show off your prized flowerbed by framing it in a lovely garden box, elevating it and setting it apart from the rest of your growing patches. 

You could also adorn your house’s walls or porch with hanging baskets of drooping ivy and pastel-coloured blossoms for a pleasing aesthetic. You could also decorate your home’s windows with boldly coloured hanging boxes of flowers, making the walls of your home blend more seamlessly with your natural space.

 

Highlight your best feature 

Don’t let those fantastic rose bushes or ornamental shrubs sit in the shadows – they deserve to be noticed! A brilliant way to achieve this is using lighting.

For instance, why not accent your favourite features with fairy lights? Or you could consider placing small lanterns around and through your flower and vegetable patches or using lights under your trees with large branches, creating enchanting and dramatic silhouettes when the night draws in. The options are endless.

Another clever way to highlight feature areas is to frame your favourite areas with an archway, drawing attention to the most impressive area of your garden. Why not merge some of these accenting elements together for optimum effect? You could, for example, wrap fairy lights around your archway making it a prominent feature both day and night.  

 

 For more inspiration or help planning your perfect garden, pop into your local branch to see our landscaping displays and speak to our team of experts.