Garden landscaping – top tips to get you started

If you’re completely new to garden design and landscaping, it can feel a bit overwhelming. With a little help from the experts, you can come up with the perfect landscaped garden just for you. We’ve come up with a few ideas to get you started.

Make a wish list

What will you be using the area for? Are you planning to use the space for frequent entertaining and summer barbecues? Do you love the idea of ‘The Good Life’ and fancy the idea of growing your own fruit and vegetables?

Will you need space for the kids to play, and somewhere to park a car? Decide on your basic needs and wants and use them to come up with a basic must-have list, then use the list to sketch out your ideal garden space.

Play around with ideas and don’t worry if you aren’t the most artistic person, going to a garden landscaper with a rough sketch of what you’ve been imagining is a great starting place.

Study your existing garden

This is where you need to pay attention and make some notes. What direction does the garden face, and where does it get the sun? Which areas are naturally shaded most of the day? Are there any areas of the garden that create a sun trap – you might not want to put your herb garden, or your eating area there.

Go outside on a windy day and see if there are any areas that seem to amplify the wind…these areas are the worst places for a barbecue, or a seating area. Not taking climate and position into account is one of the problems that first time landscapers often make – something a professional garden landscaper would always check first.

Focal points

Pick out your garden’s best feature and work it. If there’s a sculpture, a tree or a pond, you can work around that and make that the focus of the rest of the design. Drawing the eye to the most attractive part of the existing garden can make landscaping the rest of the garden that much easier.

Start with small steps

It can take time to develop an idea for a garden, and once you’ve decided what you want, it can take time to put the plans into place. If you’re doing it yourself, make sure you don’t take on too much at once, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from experts if you think the project is just too overwhelming. Take your time, and you’ll be much happier with the results; what you see on garden makeover shows takes a lot of expertise and a whole team of people to do!

For advice on landscaping, turfing and garden maintenance, ask an expert at John Lessels Landscaping…