Deciding on how exactly your garden will look is quite an exciting prospect, but if you want to make sure it will serve its purpose well, proper planning is a must. But before you get to that stage, you need to identify what that purpose is - do you want your garden to be a more laid-back place where you can just rest on a hammock with a cup of tea, or would you rather have it serve a more practical purpose, such as growing vegetables? Will it just be you and your closest family who will be using the garden, or do you plan to host a lot of barbecue parties? Make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve before you start deciding on what must be done to achieve it.
Once you have that out of the way, the first big thing to plan is the layout of your garden. Here, you can go in one of two very broad directions. Once is a formal garden, where everything is structured very tightly and your garden’s look is governed by central and cross axes. The other way you can go is an informal garden - one that allows for much more leg room and gives the garden a much more natural feel, as opposed to the pristine precision of the formal garden. Whichever one you choose is really up to your personal taste and comes down to aesthetics, as both can be equally functional.
Now that you know more or less what your garden will look like, it’s time to decide what will be in it. Think about your essentials - what you need in your garden, whether it’s a privacy fence, parking spot, or a place for your children to play. Perhaps you already have some items that you know you want to put in the garden - that’s always good news, since the next thing you will immediately want to consider is the budget. Consider both the money and the time you have available before deciding on any additional elements - decorative or otherwise - that you may want to add to your brand new garden.
The last thing to consider before work proper starts is sketching up a rough design for your garden. Sum up what you’ll put in it, decide on the plants and hardscape elements that you want to implement, finish things up with a scale drawing, and you’re good to go! If you pay close attention to every step along the way and make an informed decision at each one, you’re bound to end up with the garden of your dreams.
So, to sum up, to create the ideal garden, you should follow these steps:
- Know why you want a garden
- Dream big
- Decide what you must have in your garden
- Consider what you already have
- Decide on a budget
- Know what to focus on
- Make a general design
- Pick the plants and hardscape
- Create a scale drawing
- Execute your plan
