No one wouldn’t want to have a better garden on their property. But what does it mean by a ‘better garden’? A better garden might mean a comfortable garden where one can move comfortably regardless of the size. While a garden has to have some flourishing vegetation to be complete, each person has their preferences for plants. Nevertheless, there are some common tips to incorporate for a garden to be satisfied as a better garden. Such tips are as follows:
1. Experiment With Your Borders
You don’t need to have garden borders regimentally following the boundaries of your garden with a lawn stuck in the middle. Figure out how the space in the middle can be useful. Instead of having paths that follow straight grids or lines, consider trying soft winding shapes and curves that will make your garden appear as ornamental as possible, and remember to define the edge of your borders. Also, try structures such as obelisks and pergolas since they’ll add interest before they’re entirely sheltered by climbing plants.
2. Use Small Tiles For Smaller Spaces
If you’re working with a small garden, ensure to use small tiles to make the space feel bigger. Remember, using large tiles on small spaces will only make your area appear smaller. Additionally, the colour of the tiles should complement the existing plant’s colour, the future planting, and disguising drain covers.
3. Differentiate Between Eastern And Western Design Traditions
According to Garrett Eckbo, an influential American landscape architect, the history of landscaping design is clear and straightforward and has two primary streams: Europe and western Asia tradition and Eastern Asia tradition.
With that in mind, you need to determine if you want to design your garden based on western traditions characterized by rectangles, straight lines, and symmetry.
You can also base your garden on eastern traditions characterized by curves, irregular shapes, and other materials such as rocks, water, and gravel for a natural look. Once you understand these traditions, you’ll be confident to blend the rules and experiment with both.
4. Take Advantage Of Borrowed Views
Never shy away from capitalizing on the uniqueness surrounding your land. For instance, incorporate the borrowed beauty if your neighbour has a beautiful tree that flourishes during autumn. Ensure that you take advantage of any magnificent structure near your garden by not locking the view with high fences or plants.
5. Incorporate Sounds
Never underestimate the power of sounds in your garden. Whether it’s a breeze rustling through tall grasses or trickling waters, sounds create a serene and peaceful atmosphere. It gets even more interesting if the source of the sound is hidden, as it will develop a sense of curiosity among your visitors.
6. Use Pale Boundaries
Pale walls and fences will make your garden appear bigger and brighter. Try using masonry paint on your brick walls and consider transforming the rails with some pale outdoor paint. Besides making your garden appear radiant and more extensive, pale boundaries allow the plants to showcase their unique colors.
7. Maintain Distance
Ensure to place any plant more than 30 to 36 inches tall at least three feet from the walkway and patio edges. Contrary to this, these spaces will end up looking closed and dull. Also, thorny plants such as roses, and pungent plants such as crown imperials, should be planted away from high-traffic areas. However, you can consider growing thornless roses on your walkway if you have to.
8. Incorporate Turf
While a lawn can be costly and labour-intensive to maintain, no other surface is comfortable for play and endures high traffic as it does. With that in mind, it’s important to consider incorporating an evergreen and natural-looking turf on your lawn for durability.
Even if you’re looking forward to having a natural garden, it’s always important to consider the damage that can occur to your plants in areas with high activity, such as lawns. Therefore, instead of growing natural grass that can quickly depreciate in appearance over high activity, why not consider artificial grass. It will not only make your garden look better, but it will also serve you for quite some time.
9. Choose The Right Dimensions For A Walkway Or Path
You can decide to lay out an 18 inches path at a tight pace. However, the wider the path, the more spacious the garden appears. If you have enough space, go with a 48-inch-wide path that allows two people to walk side by side. Additionally, you can opt to experiment by laying out a path that widens and narrows and adds curves to create visual interests.
10. Use Statement Hedges
Primarily, hedges are used to mark garden borders; however, they can also be ornamental features in your garden. Fortunately, you can design hedges to your liking. Whether you opt for straight or curvy, wide or narrow, high or low, formal or informal, they will all look good in your garden.
11. Curve Your Lawn
Curvy lawns make your garden appear stylish. For instance, you can experiment with a circular lawn at the centre of your garden and make it look more significant as the boundaries seem to push out in each direction. It can be even harder to see the end of the lawn with such art if plants obscure its edges.
If you have a spacious garden, you can try overlapping two circular lawns, with the one further from the house being smaller to make the lawn appear longer.
12. Plant For Longevity
Some plant species last briefly before fading or dying, especially in different seasons. To avoid planting from time to time, consider growing plants that flourish throughout the year. Do your research for such plants based on your location for a beautiful garden all around the year.
Conclusion
There are endless ways to develop a better design for your garden. From growing plants that do well all around the year to incorporating sounds to creating overlapping lawns and experimenting with borders, you can make your garden appear as stylish as possible.
Nevertheless, while flowers enhance the curb appeal of your garden, ensure to grow the right kind of flowers at the right place. Meaning you should always avoid growing thorny flowers in areas with high traffic. Also, it would be best to consider incorporating artificial grass over natural grass in your lawn, considering traffic.