A garden can make or break the allure of a house. If your house is stunning, but the garden is lacklustre, it can change the appeal. The garden, if done correctly, acts as another room and can be a great place to entertain and relax. A beautiful garden can certainly add value.
Consider planting buddleia to attract butterflies.
Luckily there are a lot of choices when it comes to your garden. All you need to do is have a look at a few designs and get creative. The good thing about a garden is that you can play with many senses. You can choose a lot of colours and flowers with scents and the sounds of running water. You can create a whole sensory experience if you want to. To get ideas, why not drive about your neighbourhood or look in magazines and online and find people who have designed a garden that appeals to your tastes? You may be surprised at how many choices you have. Here are a few things to get you thinking:
Sound Proofing
Does your garden suffer from a lot of noise pollution from a nearby road or something equally as noisy? One rather attractive way of dealing with this issue is to invest in soundproofing hedges. You could plant them in a semi-circle around the area you want to block out and then wait for them to grow. The higher they get and the thicker they become, the more sound they will block. If you want a garden that is a relaxing space in the middle of the chaos, soundproofing is essential. A couple of great examples of soundproofing bushes are the Thuja Occidentalis and the Thuja Plicata. These are both evergreen, too, so you will not lose the covering in the winter. Once you have filtered out all the noise, you can concentrate on creating more idyllic sounds if that is something that inspires you.
Create Separate Zones
A great way to maximize space and have a garden that has several different feels is to get clover with diving up the space. You could have a secret garden and areas for guests with decking and table and chairs; you could also have a play area for children or even a meditation zone with a fountain, and what about a space for a fire pit, etc.? You may even want a hidden area where you can grow vegetables, and maybe you are looking for greenhouses for sale. Well, this can be placed in a zone too. To create zones, you can use things such as free-standing trellises and plant creeping plants to crawl over them and create the divide. Another method to divide things up is to have raised borders. You could install stepped ones or individual ones that stand quite high. Other options include pagodas again, complete with creeping plants like ivy and wisteria. Zones can create an extra fun garden that you and the children would love for years to come.
Garden Ornaments
A few garden ornaments dotted about can really make the garden pop. If you are thinking about the garden as a nether room or space to entertain, then ornaments are a must-have. Ornaments can be in the realm of the practical, like gorgeous stone benches, or the simply decorative, like silver mirrored balls. There are a lot of other things, like unusual metal and wooden sculptures. There may even be scope for you to create your own sculpture. There are many stunning water features too. If you are interested in having a meditation zone, then a water feature is a great thing to install. The sound of tricking water can take you away to a place far away and tranquil – which is exactly what you need if you plan on meditating and getting rid of all the stress in your life. If your garden is on the small side, then there are a great array of garden mirrors you can get, which will give the illusion of more space. This will make it seem less cramped and more inviting for your guests.
Paint
Just like the interior, the garden is the perfect place to use paint. This can work particularly well if you have an enclosed garden with walls on three sides, like in the middle of the city. Consider the color you want your walls to be and go for it. A light blue can be calming, a green too. Some of you may prefer to go with a garden mural to get a completely different feel altogether. Paint can definitely cover up that neglected feel if the garden has been somewhat forgotten about. Paint can also be used on masonries, such as the brickwork on your home. It can be used on woodwork, say, a shed or fencing. Other things to consider are metal paint if you have metal railings. Paint is a relatively inexpensive way to spruce things up, so do not forget this little trick.
Plants
There is no doubt that plants and trees add life and colour to your garden. Having a garden that is a simple beautifully mown lawn is a little boring and clinical. You need some more life than that. Consider flower bed borders and planting a tree. Remember, trees will create shade, so decide where exactly is the best place to plant this. Creeping plants, as mentioned earlier, are great for things like trellises and pagodas. If you have a small garden, you don’t need to worry about borders, all you need are some attractive plant pots and a few plants dotted about. Also, you may consider things like wall trellis. There are even things such as vertical gardens where you can plant flowers or vegetables, whatever takes your fancy. Hanging gardens are also great for small spaces. If you really are not the green-fingered type, then why not consider getting artificial plants and grass? Some plants are great for filtering out pollution too. So this may be essential if you live deep in the heart of the city or near a main road.