Whether you’re a gardening novice or an experienced green thumb, creating an eye-catching garden doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, it shouldn’t be daunting at all. With just a little bit of planning and forethought, you can turn your outdoor space into an eye-popping oasis.
We’ll break up this blog post into three sections: Garden Must Haves, Design Aesthetics, and Accessories. While there are certainly no hard and fast rules for planning your outdoor space, it may be best to consider these tips sequentially. Ready? Let’s have a look.
Garden Must-Haves
Ground cover: Every garden, regardless of location and size, needs something for ground cover. Your options here are virtually limitless: anything from traditional mulch to pine needles or rocks. While what you choose will be dependent on your climate and garden type, choosing vibrant ground cover is an awesome way to make your garden pop.
Edging: Another commonality all gardens will have is some type of edging. Edging is the barrier between the garden and the rest of the yard. It’s one of those things that you may not pay attention to when it’s there, but you certainly notice it when it’s not. Similar to ground cover, your options here range quite a bit: anything from stone, metal, plastic, recycled rubber, concrete, or rock. What you choose is largely based on preference and aesthetics, but edging is a great (and often overlooked) way of complementing the garden.
Weeds: Weeds can be a pretty big buzzkill to a garden. Not only do they often look bad, but invasive plants can also harm the integrity of your plants. Be sure to keep up with weeding to allow for maximum garden pop.
Outdoor Design Aesthetics
Layers: It will be difficult to make a garden pop with just one row of the same plant. To fix this, consider strategically layering your plants in a way that gives your garden a sense of organized density. A potential way of doing this is putting smaller plants in the front.
Tiers: Building tiers in your garden will mostly be a matter of hardscaping using materials like brick or stone, and it’s likely you’ll need to recruit the help of a landscape design company to do this. While it can be an involved process, tiers are perhaps the most effective way to maximize a smaller amount of space.
Color code: Our minds naturally seek out patterns, and having a color code is a great way of bringing a sense of unity to a garden. Consider grouping like-colored plants together, or mixing them in a way that creates a recognizable pattern.
Directing the eyes to a focal point: Building your garden around a central focal point—whether a house, a fountain, a statue, etc.—is a great way of enhancing your garden’s design aesthetics. Not only will this make your garden pop, but it will also make whatever’s at the focal point pop as well.
Garden Accessories
Artwork: Things such as wind chimes, statues, or artwork are a great way of complementing your garden and showing off your personality.
Rocks: Strategically placed rocks or boulders can add a natural sense of diversity to most any garden. They work well to bring out the natural colors of the outdoors while also highlighting the rich colors of the plants.
Furniture: If the whole purpose of a garden is to create a relaxing and welcoming environment, then surely you’d want some type of furniture in which to enjoy it. You don’t necessarily have to think of your furniture as separate from your garden; rather, consider integrating it as part of it.
Water: No one hates a water feature. They are undeniably cool and tranquil and can make virtually any garden pop. Just keep in mind that water features (especially koi ponds) require upkeep, so they shouldn’t be installed willy-nilly.
While there are certainly tried and true design elements when it comes to creating a garden, the most important thing is to create a comfortable and relaxing space you can enjoy throughout the year. So long as you keep this at the forefront of your garden design endeavors, it’s tough to go wrong.
