How To Landscape Your Garden

Follow our tips for giving your garden a quick make-over

If you would like to design a new look for your garden, you need to have a clear idea of what you would like to achieve whilst being realistic about your budget & other constraints such as the size & shape of your plot.

Design and Landscaping Ideas

garden steps

There are an abundance of ideas which can be found on the internet or in gardening books which will inspire your ideal design & provide information on such things as formal or informal gardens & soft scape and hardscape (landscape architect terms for plants and ornamental features like statues). In fact there is so much out there that you could become overwhelmed and not see the wood for the trees. If this happens it often pays to turn your attention to other matters. This lets your subconscious mind work on the problem – a creativity process known as incubation. A suitable solution will often germinate and spout into consciousness some time later.

Garden Design Possibilities

When considering your landscaping ideas, look at the type of soil you have as this will effect the types of plants that you can grow. Study your garden or take photos from different directions. Doing the latter is useful because sometimes you notice things which need attention, things that you have become familiar with, such as an unsightly compost heap that could be screened in the new design. Other points such as the orientation of your garden, the shade and sun aspects and its physical measurements all have to be considered. Don't be afraid to spend time researching if there are things you are unsure about. We also have our own landscaping team & garden designer at the garden centre so call us to book a consultation.

Landscaping Goals

When it comes to your landscaping ideas are you motivated by pride, environmental considerations, the wish to increase the value of your house, or pure artistic creation? Do you need a play area for children, barbecue and party space, or simply a haven of peace? These and more are all valid reasons, however it helps in the decision making if you define your primary goal.

Planning

You can plan your landscaping ideas in your head but it is essential to make a rough plan with pencil and paper, graph paper is a must for getting things to scale. There are internet sites where you can download 3D garden images to work on or packages you can buy for creating your ideal garden on your PC.

Whatever your preferred method for planning the landscape of your garden, it should incorporate proportion, scale, unity, rhythm, a sense of movement and flow, plus texture and colour balance to bring harmony, beauty and wholesomeness to your coming creation.

A final word on landscaping ideas

It is worth designing your garden to a human scale as people feel comfortable with such. Large open spaces sacrifice intimacy. A complaint against the famous garden at Versailles is that there is too much to take in. The designer, Andre Le Notre, created lovelier gardens elsewhere when he didn't have the grandiose ego of Louis XIV to satisfy.