Now all your garden infrastructure has been completed, it's time to start building your above ground garden structures. They may be foundational items such as retaining walls, fences, pathways and paved areas or they could be aesthetic such as water fountains, ponds, arbors and gazebos.

Regardless, these structures will start to add another dimension to your garden and will make the biggest statement as to how your garden is defined. In most cases, you can always transplant a garden bed or dig up a lawn but to remove a structure can be a enormous exercise so you might want to make sure that it really is what you wanted.

Without a garden design, prior to commencing work on your property, the temptation is to include structures ad hoc, as you feel inspired. This can sometimes work but it is usually the exception to the rule. In most cases you can spot a garden where this has happened as the garden structures become a menagerie of inspired moments but none of them match and some may even appear awkward and out of place.

Therefore, adding garden structures is another step in the garden design process. There are questions that you may need to ask yourself in order to plan these out better.