Planning a fully functional garden is not as easy as it seems. Regardless of what your garden project is, extensive planning is a must.
Before you start a project, you need to have everything planned out to make sure everything goes smoothly and you know where you money is going.
If this is your first time, it’s totally understandable that you have no idea where to start.
You have all these ideas in your head but you don’t know how to get it done.
So, to help you out, here are some helpful guides when planning for a garden project.
The first thing you should do when planning a garden landscape is to research. Get some inspiration by visiting public gardens, garden centers, garden shows, and even your neighbors’ gardens.
This is to help you get an idea of what you want. Remember to consider your garden size and how you want to use your garden. Then, go to your drawing board. Make sketches and mood boards from magazines and the internet.
When planning for your design, here are the things you need to look into:
● Boundaries and walls
● Patios and paths
● Fences and hedges
● Water features
● Lawns
● Planting – pots, shrubs, and trees
● Zoning areas – shading, dining, playing, etc.
Once you have all these covered, it’s time to think about your plot. When doing so, examine the following:
● The shape and size of your patio, as well as where it is facing
● The style of your home that the patio will be framing
● The surrounding areas
It’s essential that you are able to achieve balance with your garden design. Focus equally on each area. Also, don’t forget that the shape and size of plants change through the seasons.
When you are done with your plot, you must now think about the theme of your garden. Do you want it to be formal, informal, or a mix of both? A formal garden is usually geometric and clean with clipped hedges and a lot of straight lines. Meanwhile, an informal garden has many organic curves and the plants appear more relaxed.
When it comes to garden styles, the choices are almost limitless. There are so many styles, such as rustic, modern, and sleek. In contemporary designs, hard landscaping is usually the centerpiece.
This means it involves many materials, such as metal, mirror, painted walls, and concrete. But, don’t let this stop you if you are concerned about the budget and space. You can always go with a single, simple design.
Moreso, it’s always better not to overcomplicate things, especially when you have limited space. Keeping it simple and elegant is more attractive than combining too many ideas in a small garden space.
Regardless of what style or design you’re aiming for your garden, here are the landscaping materials you will most likely need:
● Decking and timber
● Bricks
● Paving
● Mortar, render, and concrete
● Block paving
● Sand and aggregates (remember to inspect the included chemicals if they fit for horticultural use)
● Paints and finishes
● Landscaping fabric and damp-proof membrane
Always be careful when choosing these materials. Upon delivery, perform a comprehensive inspection of the condition and quantity.
Apart from these materials, you should also think about waste removal. There are two ways to go about this, either to muck away or hire professional services.
Consult with local agencies or waste removal professionals on what’s the best way to go in your situation. You can also talk to your project contractor (if you have one) if their services include clearance.
If your garden is going to have major changes, then it’s highly recommended that you hire a contractor. You might be thinking that hiring a professional means more expenses.
Although you are going to pay for their services, they can actually help you plan out your budget more efficiently. They can help you keep on track with your expenses so you won’t go beyond your planned budget. For instance, they can recommend alternatives to materials that you find costly.
Meanwhile, if you are only going to do a small project, you can do it with some help from your family members and friends.
If you prefer to do a DIY project, there are a lot of books, magazines, and online tutorials that can help you. Take time to know and understand how these projects go. When it comes to the materials, you can easily get them in local stores.
If you anticipate that your project will require a lot of work, you might also want to consider hiring machinery. Some examples are a digger and cement mixer.
If you are going for a design with straight lines, then we recommend that you use materials like blocks, bricks, timber, and slabs. If you want curve designs, then go for flexible materials like poured concrete and gravel.
Doing it DIY might be more affordable; however, the entire process could be overwhelming. If you need help in planning, budgeting, and other processes, then it’s better you hire a professional. You will most likely need a professional gardener and landscape designer.
If your garden needs utility works, such as water pipes and electricity, then you’re going to need a competent engineer. They will ensure that the entire project is safe and that all on-going works comply with significant regulations.
Especially when you are doing a major renovation, it’s important that you inform your neighbors. If possible, update them with every step of your project. When you are putting up fences and walls, check the boundaries carefully. When there are dividing lines, you need to get their written permission.
If you don’t have any contact, you can consult local agencies or even your neighbors. You can also search for waste removal services online. If there are huge amounts of plants, soil, and rubble, it’s most likely you’ll need professional services.
Also, in this matter, you need to secure a permit and other necessary documents, depending on your location. If you hired a landscaper, they can help you with this. This is why it’s also important that you decide whether you need a professional or not.
It takes longer to mow and clean a small lawn with awkward-shaped areas. To address this, make things a lot simpler by smoothing or straightening the edges. This will make it easier and faster for you to mow your lawn.
It’s better if you have a mulching mower. You can then simply leave the grass clippings. This way, you no longer have to dispose of them and most importantly, it serves as food for your lawn.
If your lawn has out-of-the-way parts, you can get rid of them by replacing them with wildflower meadows. These plants only need occasional trimming.
For a low-maintenance garden, it’s better if you keep the beds and borders straight or curved gently. Raised garden beds outline herb and vegetable growing areas clearly and could aid to make the growing areas closer to you. This makes it easier for you to attend them.
Position the components of your garden that need more attention in a way that it’s easier for you to access them.
You may also want to replace a narrow and winding path with a wider and straighter one for better and faster mowing.
For plants that need more watering, it’s better to bring them closer to your water outlet. If you think you cannot attend to them regularly, then you might want to consider having an automatic irrigation system.
Moreover, garden pots require a lot of feeding and watering. To make it efficient, use larger and fewer pots and group them together.
To save both your time and money, choose vegetables that don’t need too much maintenance. For instance, a winter squash or pumpkin will require more than an occasional water when you plant them. Meanwhile, a corn will easily outgrow weeds. You can leave it most of the time until it’s time for harvest.
If you’re looking for low-maintenance salad leaves, perpetual spinach and chard are great recommendations. These crops will give you abundant leaves for a year without needing a lot of attention.
For fruits, fall-bearing raspberries and currants are excellent for a low-maintenance garden. These fruits will only need pruning once a year. Other than those, pears and apples are also great as they also need less pruning but will still provide you with lots of fruit.
Shrubs and trees are generally the top choices for a low-maintenance garden. Select those that are suitable to your climate and soil so that they can survive with little to no special care. Great recommendations are berberis, lavender, euonymus, and magnolia.
A lot of types of grass, such as carex or miscanthus, only need cutting once a year. There are also perennials, such as periwinkle, bergenia, and geranium, that cover the ground leaving little to no room for annoying weeds. Also, you may also want to put some bulbs. Many of them will adapt even with minimum maintenance.
Remember, when going with a low-maintenance garden, you don’t have to sacrifice a lot. You can still make your garden special by being smart with the design and the plants and crops you choose to grow.
One of the best things of using garden lights is it allows you to highlight your beautiful sculptures and plants.
This veers away the attention from an unattractive shed or even your kid’s outdoor toys. However, be careful that you do not overdo it.
Only highlight the best features of your garden as even minimum light has a huge impact at night.
To determine which parts of your garden look good with some light, try using a torch at night. Put it near features, such as sculptures and plants, and see if they look good illuminated.
Another great way of garden lighting by putting a spotlight near the base of a stone or brick wall. You will see how beautiful the light touches walls.
Uplighting trees with attractive barks is a great method of garden lighting. For some excellent effects, usa 50-watt spotlight near the trunk base so the light produces an effect of moving light and shadows through the tree branches.
You can make some magic by using fairy lights to achieve the mood. Put them on French doors so they are visible both indoors and outdoors. Or, you can put them in your dining area for some soft mood lighting.
If you have a plain wall, you can use it as a projector to add some effects to your garden. Position a spotlight in front of huge plants or ornamental grasses.
Once the wind creates shadows against your wall, it would appear like a black-and-white movie.
If you love having people around for some barbecue, then it’s good to have the right lighting. While it’s important to light up the dining or lounging area, make sure to put enough lighting in the cooking area as well. In this situation, consider putting up task lighting. Make sure the light is positioned that it won’t put a shadow on your grill.
Use pendant lighting and suspend it over your outdoor dining table. This is a really effective way to blend the indoors with the outdoors. You can also add a lamp and place it among your lounge chairs.
For many, the purpose of garden lighting is for security. However, garden lighting is also a great way to showcase the beautiful features of your home.
For instance, if you have an attractive mature tree with pretty leaves or flowers, place some festoon or fairy lights through your canopy. The effects will surely be amazing, particularly in autumn, when the leaves start to change color.
Of course, the best advice is to always get the best quality of garden lights. While the expenses are surely a priority, you must never compromise on the quality.
Check customer reviews, read product descriptions, and even ask from people which brand offers the best services.
You will start planning your garden irrigation with your pen and paper. Measure your garden and note them down. In your grid paper, make 1 m2 equivalent to 1 cm2 to make it easier for you to understand.
Map out your garden and don’t forget to include obstacles, like trees and architectural forms. This helps you determine how many meters of polytube you will need for your garden irrigation.
To determine how many and which types of drippers or sprinklers you will need, you have to calculate the water pressure in your garden tap. Calculate the time (in seconds) how long it takes to fill a 9-liter bucket using your faucet on full pressure.
The, with the size of the bucket (9L), divide it by the time it took to fill, them multiply by sixty. For instance, it took 30 seconds to fill. So, 9/30 x 20 will provide you with the maximum flow rate/minute. This will aid you in choosing the needed products for your garden irrigation.
So, that’s it! Once you have followed these steps, consult a professional and provide them the details. They should be able to help you which materials you’re going to need to irrigate your garden.
To give you more pieces of information, here are some types of irrigation systems that you’d want for your garden:
Drip Irrigation System
A drip irrigation system is considered as the most efficient garden watering system. It is specifically designed to release water precisely to plant roots. It uses several pipes to transport water around the garden and then connect drip emitters and position them near the base of the plants.
Since drip emitters will slowly release water, there is better control of the water being released. This type is well-fitted for flower beds and borders, greenhouses, vegetable patches, plants in containers, and hanging baskets.
A pop-up sprinkler system is probably the most famous among irrigation systems. The sprinklers and pipework are installed underground so that they are fully hidden. The sprinklers will “pop up” from the ground each time the system is activated. Then, it goes back down once the system is deactivated.
A pop-up sprinkler system is suitable for a variety of gardens, but mainly used to water grass areas. It is also commonly used to water borders and flower beds.
A soaker hose is a type of porous pipe, which is also called a “leaky pipe.” When it is used, it slowly releases water along its full length. This allows a deep soaking action to happen. This mechanism is excellent for vegetable patches, flower borders, hedge rows, and other spacious areas.
Even though it’s called a mini sprinkler system, this type is ideal for huge areas up to five meters. This type throws water in huge droplets which minimizes evaporation during the release of water. Installing this system is generally simple as it usually comes with pre-assembled mini sprinklers.
A major garden makeover will surely produce a significant amount of waste. If you’re going to cut trees, bushes, and even get rid of tons of leaves, then a small wood chipper will surely come in handy.
As its name indicates, it chips wood into smaller pieces. This way, you won’t have a hard time disposing of your garden waste. What’s more, you can create mulch by mixing the wood chips with leaves and other organic waste.
By making mulch or compost, you are feeding your plants well and you get to reuse organic waste effectively.
If you have a huge garden, then a mini dumper will surely come in handy. This power equipment can transport almost anything found in your garden.
You can use it to move huge rocks, tree branches, garbage, and even your garden tools. A garden renovation will involve a lot of work and using a mini dumper will significantly decrease the work you need to exert.
Another awesome garden power tool is a hydraulic log splitter. Take note that this is different from a wood chipper.
This equipment splits logs into halves, making them smaller. Thes logs can be used for other things, such as in a fireplace.
If you plan to use wood for something else, then a log splitter will definitely help.
Gone are the days when you have to manually split wood using an ax!
A string trimmer makes weeding a lot easier. Also known as the weed whacker, this tool uses a spinning line to cut weeds and even grass.
This is an excellent power tool if you want to have clean edges on patios, driveways, and even sidewalks.
You might be familiar with this tool but thinks that you don’t really need it. Well, you won’t really know how convenient this is until you have tried it.
This power tool cleans almost everything outdoors. It has a pressure sprayer that gets rid of mud, loose paint, grime, mold, dirt, and other types of debris.
A hedge trimmer is an excellent type of equipment for typical yard work. It looks like a chainsaw but it is made to cut through bushes, hedges, and shrubs.
Of course, you can trim hedges and bushes manually, but this tool can make the work faster. This is especially helpful if you need to attend to a lot of things.
You cannot simply drain all of your energy with just yard work, right?
So these are among the power tools that you must look into when planning a garden makeover. There are still a lot of them out there, so choose wisely as they are quite pricey.
To help you get the right garden power tools, you must plan your garden project first. This way, you will determine which ones need more work and are better done with outdoor power equipment.
