This is the final station for the "Home Garden Desing in 14 Days" train and what a train ride it's been! We've looked at everything from starting out, to adding the finishing touches to everything in between. So let's recap the journey so that you can have an easy resource at your finger tips.

Day 1 - If you're starting your garden from scratch then the first stage of the garden design is to begin sketching out some plans.

Day 2 - While you're making plans one of the main items to consider is how much maintenance will your garden require. If you don't think this through deep enough you could end up with a future problem on your hands.

Day 3 - To help keep your plans, and your garden focused, choose a garden style that you find you can achieve and that works well in your location and gardening situation.

Day 4 - Take a look around. You may find that there's a landscape that you can borrow.

Day 5 - Now comes the hard work. Plans are great on paper but for them to become reality they need to be implemented. First cab of the rank is installing your lawn and garden reticulation.

Day 6 - Not necessary but fast becoming a project of choice for many gardeners is installing outdoor landscape lighting. This is a great idea if you want to utilise your garden not only during daylight hours but during the evenings as well.

Day 7 - The first real stage of building the design is when you being to build above the ground and give your garden some structure.

Day 8 - Every garden requires a maintenance area, so why not incorporate it into the design rather than build it as an add-on.

Day 9 - Moving around your garden has to be considered as well. So think about pathways in your garden that will fit in with the design but be practical as well.

Day 10 - One of the main projects that many gardeners are introducing into their garden designs are water features. They look great and add another dimension to the whole design that works really well.

Day 11 - Now it's getting exciting because it's time to start thinking about plants. The main consideration here is location, location, location!

Day 12 - Plant colour choice is important and says much about your personality. Consider it carefully.

Day 13 - But, plant and flower colour isn't everything. Stand back from the garden and you'll notice that plant shape and texture is even more important.

Day 14 - Finally, it's time to add the finishing touches. Accessorising your garden with sculptures, knick-knacks, whimsy etc will tie it all up very nicely indeed.

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It's almost time to sit back and relax, relishing the idea that your garden design has finally been completed and what once seemed insurmountable is now a living, breathing object of beauty.

However, there is one last item that needs to be considered and that is "Garden Bling". Garden Bling is the idea of dressing up what you've created and adorning it in such a way that everything ties together harmoniously. It's like adding makeup to an already beautiful face. You're not trying to create something entirely different with the cosmetics rather you want to highlight the finer features.

The only consideration for adding bling is that it's appropriate for your garden. Fat buddha's may be all the rage as garden ornaments but place one in your cottage garden and it will look incredibly ridiculous.

Here's a new piece of garden bling that I found lying in the bush on one of my latest expeditions. It's the rusted wheel arch of an old car and eventually will have some Senecio blooming through the headlight.

This piece of seemingly useless junk will tie in wonderfully with our native garden as it's an item that one would expect to see in this style of garden. The other obvious benefit was that it was free.

So, before adding bling to your garden, think through what would be appropriate for the style of garden you have. Don't make your bling the complete centre of attention but try and find ways to integrate it as a highlight. Think of it as mascara for the eyelashes and not the eyelashes themselves.

Oh, and be creative...

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More importantly than using colour in your garden is being able to mesh different plant shapes and textures. The idea behind this is to create interest in your garden from more than just flowers and foliage colour.

Kim, from A Study In Contrasts said it well;

See, what really gets me going in the garden is contrast, especially contrasts in plant texture. Chunky bergenia leaves next to the fine foliage of achillea. A grouping of bold, glaucous ornamental sea kale interplanted with wispy French tarragon. And so on.

Growing habits of each plant can create incredible diversity in your plantings. As an example, two gardeners could have exactly the same plant types in their garden yet due to their placement of these plants will result in two completely different vistas. It's even possible to have the same plants as a garden you aspire to have, yet still get it completely wrong.

Are there any rules for using texture and plant shape in your garden? Read on...

Continue reading "Harmonising with plant shape and texture" »

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As the time for planting has arrived it's worth considering colour choice in your garden beds. This is an important decision and the main variable in determining your choices is the style of garden that you have initially opted for.

Colour can come in two forms; flowers or foliage. If your colour comes from flowers then you need to consider some planting options as flowers will only last a season and leave the plants bare for the remainder of the year.

Flower Colour

The first option is to grow plants that can be staggered in their flowering seasons. As many plants, especially most annuals, flower in spring your garden will look gorgeous through this season but you will also need to choose plants that flower through winter (many early bulbs are a good choice here), summer and autumn.

I find the best way to do this is to get a picture of the plants you are hoping to grow and arrange them on a piece of paper. Have one piece for each season attaching the plants that flower predominantly through that period. This will give you a good view of the garden and allow you move the plants location so that colours don't clash. You may even find that some transparent paper may be a better idea as the you can also see where you have situated your other seasonal plants.

Foliage Colour

The difference with foliage colour is that in most cases the foliage remains the same through all seasons. This allows you to plan your garden knowing that it will remain fairly consistent throughout the year.

To bring some dynamic effect into this colour choice you could opt to add a deciduous tree where the foliage changes colour in autumn, is bare in winter, lighter foliage in spring with a deeper mature foliage in summer.

Many tropical gardens rely on foliage for their colour using bromeliads, palms and bamboo trunks to mesh together creating a sea of colour that is devoid of flowers (noting that some bromeliads do flower).

It may be worth contemplating that your garden colour choice also says something about your personality so feel free to share with the world who you are.

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Finally, most of the infrastructure and ground work for your garden has been completed. Now it's time to paint it with plants.

But before you rush down to the nursery and grab everything that's either on sale or is your favourite Gardening Show's "Plant of the Week", there are a few things to consider. Namely plant location and plant shape, colour and texture. The most important of these is location.

Everyone has a limited resource of property whether it's a small balcony garden or a large estate, gardeners are still faced with the challenge of limiting their plant choices. While the obvious limitations are growing requirements such as shelter for shade loving plants, or room to move for a large tree or shrub it is also worth considering the limitation of prime real estate.

What do I mean by "prime real estate"? Well, if you understand economics you will already be aware of the term "economic cost" of a decision. Placing one plant in the best possible location in your garden limits the option of placing another there.

Continue reading "Location, location, location!!" »

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As we continue on with our "Home Garden Design in 14 Days" series it's time to look at the humble garden path. This seemingly overlooked jewel of gardening design is a very important piece of infrastructure yet often it can be an afterthought.

The garden path is the vehicle for moving around your garden, so where it starts from and where it ends, what materials it's constructed from and how it ties in with the rest of your garden are all important considerations. The path needs to be durable and constructed well in order to withstand years of heavy wheelbarrows, children's bikes and the plethora of garden admirers who journey down them.

So that they're not an afterthought, it's best to consider them in your plan before you commence any construction. Here's some tips to make the paths work in your garden...

Continue reading "Being led down the garden path" »

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Any garden, whether it's been designed well or not, has a maintenance area. The difference is that maintenance areas in a well designed garden blend in with their surroundings rather than create an eyesore.

A garden maintenance area is the hub of your gardening resources. Compost bins, worm farms, stockpiled manures and fertilisers and even a place for your garden wheelbarrow. This area may even hold resources for future projects or at least items left over from previous ones.

While these are all essential items for a living, breathing garden there are ways to obscure their prominence on the outlook. And hiding them is probably the best way.

Continue reading "A Garden Maintenance Area That's Not an Eyesore" »

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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.

Continue reading "Giving your garden structure" »

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The water reticulation is now complete and you've replaced all the sand only to discover that more trenches are required to install your outdoor landscape lighting. Oops! I forgot that you had been reading this Home Garden Design series and had already planned your outdoor lighting when you drew your initial garden plans so this extra effort had been avoided by utilising the same trenches.

But now you're wondering how this can be that water pipes and electrical cable can co-exist. Surely this is a big no-no. Well, that all depends on whether you install low voltage outdoor lighting or you plan to incorporate the normal 240V cabling. If the cabling required for your outdoor lighting is the same that your house is utilising then in most cases this will need to be dug to a depth of 600mm (23.6 inches) and should be installed by a qualified electrician. However, if you're using low voltage outdoor lighting you can do this yourself without fear of electrocuting yourself or others who may visit your garden.

Continue reading "Installing outdoor landscape lighting" »

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Okay. The planning process is now finished. You've drawn your garden design out, taking into consideration which garden style you will be trying to emulate, thought through some garden maintenance issues and even considered what the borrowed landscape may bring to your design. Now it's time to start some work.

The first stage of this is all the foundation structure and infrastructure you will need to form your garden. Before you can start construction on some of the structures you would like to have you need to consider the services needed to make your garden work.

The first consideration is installing your reticulation for your lawns and garden beds. Hopefully, you already sketched out your reticulation plan at the beginning so now it is just a matter of digging the trenches and joining pipes.

Continue reading "Install garden and lawn reticulation" »

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Yesterday's post talked about choosing a garden style and while you may have already thought of ideas along these lines, there's probably one more still to consider. This idea is termed the "borrowed landscape" and it means exactly what it infers.

The philosophy behind borrowed landscapes is to incorporate your garden design into the natural surroundings that can be viewed on the other side of your fences. Visual elements such as mountain ranges and hills, trees, shrubs and climbers can all be included in your overall garden design.

However, like all things there are pros and cons to using the borrowed landscape.

Continue reading "The Borrowed Landscape" »

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The default setting for most beginner gardeners is to find some plants that you like and try and find places for each in your garden beds (I've done this too). We take a trip to our favourite nursery and pack the trolley with plants that we like. Maybe it's the flower, the foliage, and the perfume or even it's bird-attracting qualities.

Unfortunately, we take little consideration as to how they will interact with plants we already have. We just thought that they were nice plants and they might look good in our garden.

There's nothing wrong with this approach unless you are trying to construct a garden design that oozes beauty, order and desirability. If you want these things and have been following this series then the next step to take is to think through what style of garden you would like to have.

Continue reading "Choosing a Garden Style" »

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Our lifestyles have changed considerably since our parents, and even more so than their parents. We want to accomplish more, see more, experience more and generally ensure that our life is expensed as spontaneously as our buying habits.

With this change in ideology, our priorities shift and what our parents may have defined gardening as is no longer the benchmark for how we garden. We have tools now. Loads of tools. We no longer need to turn compost with a fork and some elbow grease. We just rotate the handle. And we certainly won't be raking up the leaves this autumn as we either don't have deciduous trees because we turned them over to conifers, palms and grasses, or we have a Cyclone Rake to do it for us.

As you begin to plan out your garden design this is one question you will need to keep in the back of your mind. Marrying up your lifestyle with your dreams of a beautiful garden is better done at this stage than when you're halfway through your first landscaping feature.

Continue reading "How much maintenance will your garden require?" »

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Probably the most common question to ask when planning your home garden design is "Where do I start?" The answer: a blank piece of paper.

Start off with an A3 or A2 size sheet. This should give you enough room to draw in as much detail as you require. Pencil in any buildings, structures and landforms that will remain as part of your garden design. This will obviously include your house, and sheds and any mature trees you plan to keep. If you have a larger property it may also include streams and watercourses, driveways and existing pathways.

Once you've blocked all this detail into your design you then need to locate north, if you're living in the southern hemisphere, or south if you're living in the northern half. The importance of this is to plan where the sun will move and which parts of your garden will be relegated to shade.

Continue reading "Starting your garden from scratch" »

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The key required to design your own garden is in the planning stages. And while it's easy to create a garden (and anybody can), it requires a tremendous amount of forethought to bring all the required elements together.

Much like an artist starting their first strokes on a blank canvas, the ideas required to fill those blank portions need to be mapped out. Otherwise the resulting picture becomes unbalanced and the individual elements lose their relationship with each other.

When designing your home garden, plants need to relate with structures; colours with textures; and, foliage with flowers. As they are balanced they become a mirror of the gardeners imagination, creativity attention to detail. The garden proclaims the gardener's intent and will declare his or her's expression much like a bottle of red accounts for a vigneron's expertise and passion.

So, for the next two weeks (14 days) I will try to give some thought-provoking pointers to help you place the jigsaw, that is your garden, together.

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