How to Make Your Garden Look Good
The first step in achieving a well-designed garden is to decide the best aspect in your garden, which in turn will help you to decide what plants to use and where to place them, based on the sunlight and shade needed by different plants.
Your next decision is – “What style of garden would I like?”
Mediterranean Garden:
This is a garden that tolerates dry and windy conditions, with popular plants being Bougainvillea, olive trees, citrus trees and all types of geraniums.
English Cottage Garden:
A wide choice of plants for this type of garden includes roses, lavender, daisies, different types of ivy, jasmine, daffodils and many other popular flowering plants and bushes.
Tree Garden:
Depending on the aspect of garden, if you are looking for shade, a tree garden delivers a lot of shady areas and there is a great variety of suitable trees. I am a fan of citrus trees because they usually have good foliage cover and additionally supply you with fresh home-grown fruit. Generally, trees from the citrus family – lemons, oranges, limes, mandarins – are quick growing and very popular. You can ‘topiary’ the trees or let them grow naturally, and all these trees look very colourful when they are fruiting.
Olive trees are also prolific growers, they bear olives every year, they don’t need a lot of maintenance and they have beautiful silver-coloured and very thick foliage. I’ve recommended these fruit trees because they suit small courtyards or small garden areas.
However, there is a huge variety of spreading and tall trees to choose from if you have the land to accommodate them
Formal or Structured Garden:
This type of garden has become very popular due to the small gardens now commonly offered in building developments. Creating this type of garden usually requires trimmed lawns surrounded by clipped hedging as borders, topiary trees in among the hedging and espaliering of plants against uninteresting brick walls. An extra benefit with espaliering is that you can use all types of fruit trees, such as apple, lemon, oranges and lime. This looks very affective and has the extra bonus of fresh fruit to pick.
Tropical Garden:
If you live in a tropical climate, decide whether it’s dry or wet tropics, as different plants thrive in these different tropical climes. Also remember that plants grow very fast in the tropics, so – unless you want to be constantly trimming back – try to avoid hedges, vines and some rapid-spreading types of ground cover. The bonus is that palm trees, exotic ginger and Fijian fire bushes and gorgeous plants such as Kangaroo’s Paw and Bird of Paradise will grow happily without any attention except some fertiliser and mulching. Mulching is the key to a good tropical garden – it keeps the moisture in the soil on the hottest days. It’s also wise to include a reticulation system in your garden layout, so watering is not a time-consuming everyday chore. You can cover an area with reticulation for just a low-cost.
Vegetable Garden:
Well, this speaks for itself – all those fresh vegetables growing in your back yard – how exciting is that? A practical and popular way is to have your vegetable garden growing in mobile planter boxes.
Remember that it’s not about how much money you spend on your garden but how creative you are. Listed below are some ideas to make your garden more interesting, so you can really enjoy your surroundings.
When you want to keep your garden colour scheme stylish, white flowers are indispensable. A single white climbing rose against any backdrop can look fantastic.
Hand-cut natural sandstone has a brilliant texture and look; it ages well and is easy to shape to fit.
Limestone walls with wide uneven grouting give a great European look
Water adds an extra element to any garden design, no matter its size or style.
To create a stunning effect introduce changes by creating different levels.
Try to include a few fun elements when designing your garden by creating garden art. It can be simple as combining objects in imaginative ways – you don’t need to be a highly skilled artisan to do this.
Fake lawn has become popular, and a clever way to use it is by placing it between pavers creating a very interesting courtyard.
Pots, pots and more pots – in all different shapes and sizes – some large pots and some small ones placed strategically. Always remember with small pots that you should group them and not sprinkle them around the garden. One very large pot can make a real statement, more so than two or three small pots.
Statues add mystique to any type of garden.
Finally, a water tank is a must, so if you can manage to fit it in your garden, save water and keep your garden looking gorgeous at the same time!
I hope this article has given you a few ideas and made you want to get into your garden to give it a special and interesting look!
