As the summer season gets warmer and the winter months get wetter, here are 5 suggestions for garden features that will ensure you can make the most of your outdoor spaces all year round.
As home improvement trends go, turning your garden into extra living space has to be near the top of the list. It’s far more cost effective and much less stressful than moving house and the resulting changes to your lifestyle can be transformative.
As a landscaper, I could talk all day about ways to improve your outdoor - and if you invite me to your home to discuss your plans for a garden makeover, you can rest assured I’ll have plenty of ideas. But you won’t want to read an article a mile long, so here are my top five tips that will suit almost every garden.
If your garden gets too dry you can irrigate it. But if it’s waterlogged it could curtail your outdoor activities for weeks. And your plants will be none to happy about it either. So tantamount to any garden makeover is managing rainwater, and doing it in a way that’s efficient AND aesthetically pleasing.
Depending on your soil type, aspect, and how you want to use your garden, there are several options, each one needs careful thought and even more careful installation.
Patios, driveways and hard landscaping surfaces all need to be installed with a very subtle slope - to ensure that water is directed away from buildings. I usually install a bespoke drainage system to carry excess water off to a soak-away where it can be absorbed into the soil.
A few of my clients have asked me to create rain gardens for them. These are great! Water from patios, paths and roofs is collected up and directed to a specific area in the garden that supports wildlife. The water can be collected in fish tanks for a patio-side talking point, or it can travel down a pretty rill towards a pond or bog garden. Rain gardens are incredibly eco-friendly and they’ve always got something interesting going on in them.
However you choose to drain your garden, it does need experience and expertise to design the system. Get it wrong and you could easily get in a muddle. But done well, garden drainage can help ensure that your plot is usable all year round.
What stopped you from using your garden more often last year? I’d hazard a guess that you stayed inside on some days because the garden was too hot, and on other days a stiff breeze or drizzly rain made you decide to stay indoors. All of those problems are easily solved by installing some kind of shelter.
I’d recommend a pergola any day. Not only are they great for shade and shelter, they’re great for privacy too - especially if your garden is overlooked by neighbours.
A pergola creates extra living space for your home, and if you choose one with a louvred roof and/or removable sides, it can easily be adjusted to give more (or less) protection from the weather. Add an electrical supply and your pergola can benefit from lighting, heating and even a hot tub. Use it as a quiet space when working from home, or send the children out there for some imaginative play away from screens.
Food created outdoors is simply delicious - the cooking smells are divine and who cares if they linger a while - they’re outside! Cooking and eating outside brings people together and has a wonderfully relaxing holiday vibe to it.
Make life easier by having a dedicated cooking area with space for a dining table near by. If the budget allows, you might want to build some worktops with storage space beneath for bbq fuel and utensils. An outdoor sink could be added too - ideal for cleaning gardening hands before you start cooking.
My top tip for outdoor cooking and eating is to design the layout so that the chef can face their guests and join in the conversation whilst preparing the food. Oh - and make sure that the area is big enough so that nobody needs to squeeze past the hot bbq or pizza oven and risk a nasty burn.
A well designed outdoor kitchen with lighting, a fridge and worktops can double as a bar and entertainment area - what’s not to like?!
If I had a wee bit more time on my hands I’d definitely grow more fruit, vegetables and herbs in my own garden. They taste divine and are a great way to teach my twins where food really comes from. As it is, I grow some simple salad crops for a fresh, chemical-free crunch to my meals, and I have some strawberries and a few hardy herbs. Even those few things make a huge difference to my diet.
You don’t need an allotment sized plot to grow food. A few raised beds are enough to enhance your diet. Just plan your crops carefully and use successional sowing techniques to avoid gluts and hungry gaps. Add an automatic irrigation system and you won’t need to stress about daily watering duties.
Every garden deserves at least one tree. Even if it’s only a little one. Trees come with a wealth of benefits and all they ask in return is some soil to get their roots into. Think shade, privacy, wildlife interest, cooling the air around them, and, depending on the species, you might even get spring blossoms and autumn fruits.
When you decide where to plant your tree, think about the size it will be when it’s mature and don’t position it too close to fences, structures or overhead utilities. It will need watering until it’s established (usually about 12 months) but something like a tree hydration bag will make that job easy for you.
These mature apple trees offer so much more than shade, privacy and fruit
Those are my top five recommendations for garden features. I could go on to discuss paths, lighting, water features, bin storage, outdoor gyms and more - but I’ll leave those subjects for future blogs.
As always, if you’d like to discuss a quote for a garden makeover in Feltwell, Downham Market, Ely, Newmarket, Thetford, Bury St Edmunds and surrounding areas, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.