HOW TO DESIGN AND BUILD YOUR OWN GARDEN By Dave Limburg
Function first! Simply work out what you want to do in your garden and forget all about plants! The overall layout of the garden and the function are the most important aspects of designing your garden. Thinking of just plants is like designing a house by first choosing the curtains. Just as a house has rooms - living, dining, bedroom and so on, the garden has a sequence of outdoor rooms. Garden walls are made of trees and shrubs, the floor is planted or paved and the flowers and furniture are the decoration. Particular plants are not important at this stage - instead, think about the overall look you want. 2
Common mistakes when designing your garden include; 4. Not preparing the soil correctly. 5. 3. Failing to correctly install hard landscaping elements. 1. Failing to plan before starting! 6. Choosing what is flowering now. Flowers generally only last for a few weeks at best. Choose garden plants based on their form and function year round. 2. Not designing the garden for practicality and usability. 3
Planning your garden: Take into account the following: Your needs Your site Trees and paving Soil Design for the climate The ideal aspect Shading the house Putting the plan on paper The rules of good design Your Budget 4
>Assess your needs Begin your planning by daydreaming a little. If the idea of breakfast in the sun or dinner under the stars appeals to you, then you probably need a sheltered patio. Do you need space for a pool, for a dog or kids to ride bikes or play in a sand pit? Do you want to grow vegetables or have a barbecue area for entertaining? Finally, it's wise not to plan a garden that will demand more time than you're prepared to give it. All gardens are work and the more elaborate the layout and contents, the more work there will be. If you enjoy gardening, you'll think of it as a hobby, but if you'd rather be sailing or golfing you won't have the time for lots of maintenance. 5
>Assess your site Next, take stock of what you have and look around critically - this process will throw up ideas to get you going. Start with the house. If you have windows looking straight onto the street or at the neighbours, a clump of airy trees or shrubs will take away the fish-bowl feeling and may lead you to a woodland or tropical theme. Always position screening shrubs and trees as far away from your windows as possible. This creates a pleasant outlook between you and the screen and minimises the loss of light. 6
Drawing up your ideas. Get the dimensions of your site and add in any hard element such as the house, garage, pool. Next fill in the hard elements that you need pathways, entertaining areas, pergolas, vegetable garden. Once you know what you need, what you want and what you can have its time to draw up a plan. Now its time to look at what plants you can add. Find out what grows well in your area. Look at your neighbours gardens. Ensure that you plant trees and shrubs that will not grow larger than the space allows. Group shrubs and smaller perennials to add impact. Ground covers make a garden bed look fuller and assist in keeping weeds down. 7
Start putting it together! Your hard landscaping needs to be done first paving, retaining walls, pathways, drainage, pergolas seating areas and storage areas. Ensure that you follow the correct procedure in installing your hard landscaping elements. Next, its time to improve the soil. Find out the structure of your existing soil clay, sand, loam and the ph and make any amendments you need to, but most importantly add loads and loads of organic matter at this stage. Compost, humus, manure should all be added to improve the soil structure, water holding capacity and nutrients. Healthy soil is critical to healthy plants. You only really get one chance to do this right, in the future you can add mulches and small amounts of organic matter, but its difficult to dramatically change the soil structure once a garden is established. 8
Ongoing Maintenance Ensure that you keep your garden maintenance up. Write down a seasonal check list of what needs to be done each season. Outline jobs such as mowing the lawn, pruning, feeding, planting annuals, planting herbs and mulching. Certain jobs are best done at certain times of the year, find out when you should prune, when to fertilise and when to plant your annuals. But most importantly ENJOY YOUR GARDEN! 9
Custom Garden Designs are available from Online Garden Design. Visit the OnlineGardenDesign website or email us at info@onlinegardendesign.com.au www.onlinegardendesign.com.au Phone: 0405 418 141 10