There’s nothing better than being able to look outside your window at your garden and, well, enjoy what you see! Especially when the sun is shining, and your garden is looking at its glorious best.
There will be a few of you, however, who read that last part and thought, ‘…but my garden doesn’t look nice’. That’s probably because you haven’t put the time into ensuring it’s the best it can be.
Fear not, with a bit of determination and a strong work ethic you can build a garden they are proud of. Here are ten steps to help you get the most from your space.
Clearing Out
If you’ve been neglecting your garden for the past few years, then it’s probably in a pretty poor condition. There’ll be leaves, dead areas, old bits and bobs that have somehow ended up there. Before you do anything, you’ll want to get your garden to its base level.
Clear away anything that doesn’t belong and have a generally tidy up; once it’s done, you’ll have a better sense of the size of the garden you’ll be dealing with. It might even mean taking away some areas you’re already happy with if they don’t fit into your new plan. Talking of which….
Have a Plan
A garden’s success depends on the plan from which it sprung. Without a plan of what will go where then you can have no hope of ending up with a garden that makes aesthetic sense. So like most other things in life, having a solid plan will be your gateway to getting it right.
Have a look at the space and think about what you want from your garden. Will it be flower heavy? Will you include a water feature? Knowing the answers to these questions will make it easier moving forward.
In the Shed
Your hands will be getting dirty, but you won’t be doing absolutely everything with your bare hands. Not at all, in fact! You’ll be using gardening tools, a whole host of them, so you’ll need to make sure your garden shed (or garage) is fully equipped with everything you need to get your new gardening venture off the ground.
More important than simply owning the right equipment, it’s crucial that you know which tools are for what and how to use them correctly.
Making the Beds
When you’re in the planning stage, you’ll be establishing which flowers you want to have in your garden. We’ll talk about choosing your plants in a minute, but before that, you should make sure you’re separating your different flowers into different flower beds.
This is especially important if you’re a beginner gardener, as having your flowers carefully divided up will make it easier to manage them. This is also an opportunity to add some creative divisions to your garden, used to divide the beds.
Choose Your Plants
And now to the fun bit! Which flowers do you want to see when you open the door to your garden? There’s plenty to choose from, though some are easier to grow and maintain than others. Lavender is a popular choice, as it’s pretty resilient, and while it won’t blow away guests, does add a beautiful touch of colour to your garden.
You can add a few special flowers in there, too, such as roses; despite what some gardeners say, roses are not as difficult to have in your garden as you might think – the key is picking a spot that gets plenty of sunlight and good soil. Day-lilies and maiden grass also look great in a garden!
Bringing the Technology
If you’re new to gardening, then there’ll be a lot of occasions where you simply don’t know what you’re doing. This is where your smartphone can come in. Take a look at some of the gardening apps available and you’ll have a wealth of information about the type of plant you’re trying to grow, as well as finding new inspiration when you want to step up your garden.
Keeping the Bugs Away
One of the biggest obstacles to your garden isn’t anything you know or don’t know about gardening: it’s the insects who view your garden as one big tasty snack! There’s nothing more dispiriting than putting in loads of hard work and then discovering it’s been eaten.
Fortunately, there are plenty of natural remedies to keeping the insects away. Avoid using chemicals – even if they work, they’re no good for your garden or the earth.
Summer Nights
Your garden will look beautiful around the edges, but what about where you’ll sit and enjoy it on summer nights? While plants and the rest are important, don’t neglect the rest of your garden. Buying – or building – a chair and table set for your garden will open it up for family and guests to enjoy.
If you want to make your garden extra special, look at adding a BBQ. When you’re sitting out late into the night throughout the summer nights, you’ll know you’ve made the right choice!
Staying Active
When all the plants are planted and watered, when the grass is cut, when everything looks just right…it’s time to relax. But not for too long. A beautiful garden won’t stay that way for long if you’re not staying on top of it!
Having a nice garden is an ongoing task, though thankfully you get most of the work out the way in the early stages. You should be checking your garden as often as you can – at least once every couple of days – and taking care of whatever it needs.
Have Fun
And finally, the key to getting a perfect garden: having fun! Throw yourself into it, and your garden will quickly become your new passion. Once you’re having fun, it won’t feel like work at all.
Gardens can be frustrating, but they always pay off in the end, providing your work hard and strive to make it the best it can be.
I have gardened all my life and loved it.
I moved last July to a clifftop farmhouse next to the sea stunning location but no good for gardening as we get blown away most day and very often galeforce winds all my plants I brought are either died or dying so far chives and hebes are the only ones living.
Oh that sounds awful! Do you have the space to perhaps have some hedges which would act as a good buffer to the wind? Something like Hedgehog Rose, which is salt tolerant and flowers in summer might work.
Then you could perhaps try something like a hardy geranium or even some Lilac ‘Bloomerang’ Syringa which flower twice?
Hope you find something suited to your new garden!