Home Improvement Guide

If you’re looking for a way to make significant changes to the look of your outside space you want to first look at the bigger picture of the area with which you have to work and consider the factors that you need to take into account such as things that you can/ cannot change and do/don’t want to change. Factors would include geographical location, buildings, large trees or bushes, rocks, water placement, shape and gradient of the outdoor space, etc.

Once you armed with this information you can work out what you need to do to bring about the look and feel you want to achieve. You might not always need to carry out major landscaping changes. Minor changes can give you stunning effects.

Adding an outdoor water feature to your garden area can give your home a whole new look and feel. There are water features that will fit any size area and installation limitations with which you may be faced. It may be a modest or prominent outdoor water feature but either will add a whole new dimension to the space and although moving water might be needed for some outdoor water landscape designs, it’s not required in all instances.

Fountains are a good choice in water features if you are looking for something that will require minimal work, Fountains come in a variety of themes, shapes, sizes and complexities. You can select something simple for a small patio space but if you have the space you can position a large complex piece to create a focal point in the center of a large garden. Fountain and pond installation is relatively simple if you already have water connected and running to the spot. Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions to build the fountain and attach the water supply. Not all fountain kits come with extra hose or connectors which may be required to attach the fountain to your water source. These connections would probably differ according to your water supply.

If you already have a body of water such as pond on your property, you can just add a fountain kit to it to change its look.

Ponds are simple to add to your property whether you have a small odd sized outdoor space or an acre of garden. All you need for a small area is a basic pond kit, some stones and a small plastic pond from the home improvement store. For larger ponds you might need to excavate the space with a backhoe.

In a typical small space like a home garden, features like whether the garden is flat or on an incline, its layout and the position of the house and outdoor buildings can affect the whole feel of the garden. Additional factors to consider would be climate and availability of water or whether you are trying to recreate a garden theme that is outside the norm for the area (which will be a lot of work) such as an English style garden in the desert or a cactus garden where there can be ice and snow. For more practical and less radical garden recreation your garden space can be enhanced with strategically placed planters, garden stairs, and a water element.

Around the outside border of your patio area place planters to give the feel of a boundary between it and the great outdoors beyond! Consider creating a concrete, stone or other sturdy patio structure if you do not have an outdoor living area and position planters strategically around the edge. Collect and use interesting and unusual containers such as wine barrels or more conventional concrete, terracotta or glazed ceramic planters. Arrange them in decorative clusters at the edge of the patio. Grow decorative grasses, ferns, peace lilies and other lush, bushy plants to bestow a more natural feel to your patio and give it a soft border.

A steep grade is a challenge in any home garden but it can also be an opportunity for stunning visual landscape. Put in a twisting narrow stairway down the hill surrounded by terrace garden beds that are separated by retaining walls. Select plants and stagger your planting to create the impression of descending from a hill or mountain top into a lush forest. Plant flowers and low hedges in planters near the top of the hill. The advantage of planters here is that if they can moved for a “holiday” when they are in their off season and replaced with plants that are in full growth and flower. Follow these with plants that increase in size, such as hedges, fruit trees, and bamboo. At the bottom, install large trees that are appropriately sized to your home garden space.

Gardening is one of the most popular pastimes everywhere in the world. There seems to be a very special magic that is woven by daily puttering in their yards, expressing their creative colorful outdoor home garden landscape. For those with limited space, there may be restraints that you need to overcome but beautiful outdoor spaces can be created on even on the smallest balconies. You do not need complexity to landscaping a small outdoor space for it to be beautiful. The simplest effects can look stunning.

Plant border plants around your garden beds or use some landscaping feature like a rock wall or planters. Use stone, small evergreens or ground cover perennials that you can train into the desired shape. English thyme is a useful fragrant low-level ground cover that can create beautiful borders. Creating borders give a more formal feel but also gives a feeling of “difference” between inside the area and out. Even if the garden itself isn’t planned, the border creates a simple and easy landscape feature.

At the end of the day, landscaping your garden is going to depend on your preferences and availability of materials. If I can give you only one tip it is this: Once you have taken stock of the land and its features, Plan. Come up with a theme for your garden before you plant. Unless you have enough space for clearly defined garden “rooms” have an overall theme. Maybe you would like a garden featuring mainly plants with yellow flowers or leaves, for example. Other theme ideas include a butterfly garden, a knot garden and a herb garden. None of these require much space, Plan them on paper first so that your garden goes in correctly the first time and you don’t have wasted materials and plants, or time.