Spring is the time to start opening the windows, going for long walks with extra evening light, and planting your garden. Whether this is the first time you have considered planting a garden or you are an experienced gardener, planning is always the key. You don’t want to just walk in to the store and select the plants and accessories that you love the most, because they may not work together or work for your garden area. Always plan first. Take the time over the week to lay out your plan and use the weekend to create your masterpiece.
The following are five design ideas that can help you get started with planning the perfect garden for your space.
The Welcome Home Garden
People too often neglect their front yard but it is the first impression that anyone gets of your home. This is particularly important if you are entertaining important guests, such as potential buyers. Most front yards are rather small but that doesn’t mean that you should overlook their importance.
Concentrate on making the path to your front door inviting. Don’t be concerned about having a straight path to your front door. If your path curves from your driveway, there is an added appeal. Make certain that none of the stones on the pathway are broken. Replace them if need be. Create a row of flowers on each side of your path and put down red mulch to accent the plants, protect the soil, and keep in the moisture. If you have a long pathway, consider putting in solar lights along your path to guide your guests to your front door.
If you have a large front porch, plant flowers in containers and space them evenly along the porch. If you have limited space, consider a few hanging plants to beautify the area but allow for room to move.
A small backyard that slopes lends itself well to a garden that involves more rocks than plants. This design works particularly well in hot and humid climates where watering a large gardens or many flowering plants just isn’t practical.
Select a large stone to make a focal point or, better yet, choose many large stones so that you can line them up and create a wall of stones. If you have a sloped yard, two layers of stones could give a step feel to your yard and allow you to intersperse flowers and shrubs in between the two layers. Another option is to create a raised bed against your house that is surrounded by smaller rocks and plant a few larger plants closer to the house with smaller flowering plants closer to the rocks.
A small garden needs a focal point and a water feature is sure to be a big hit. From a simple bird bath to a flowing rock water feature, there are a lot of options, even for a small garden area. The main considerations are the time that you wish to spend on upkeep of the feature and the children or animals that are around that may not be able to resist playing in the water. The sight and sound of a water feature are a lovely addition to a small garden landscape and allow for a lot of versatility in your plant and flower choices.
If you truly do not have the space to create a garden in your yard, or if you want to keep significant grass space available for children or animals to play in, then a container garden is for you. The concept behind container gardening is to choose a pots and planters in a variety of sizes to plant both flowering and non-flowering plants. Be careful to select pots in colors that blend well together but don’t just choose one color as this makes for a rather mundane landscaping design. Whether you want to go with a neutral palette or a bold one, choose many different colors within that palette, keeping in mind the flower colors you want as well.
Remember to choose various sizes of pots, but also choose plants that will fit correctly into those pots. Select pots that will hang as well as pots that will be at “ground” level and ones that can be put upon shelves or railings. Avoid plants that grow too quickly because you want to enjoy your garden and not spend all of your time repotting plants into larger containers.
Statue Garden
This landscaping idea for a small garden can be achieved in one of two ways. The traditional route would be to select statuary from a store and place it convincingly in your yard, either selecting one main piece or a grouping of pieces. Groupings are nice because they can be highlighted with plants or outlined with small stones.
A less conventional approach is to buy fast growing shrubbery to plant in a few places in the garden. As the shrubs grow, you can use pruning shears to turn the greenery into living statues. This takes a lot of patience but the effect is very lovely and will create a lot of interest in your home.
