Can You Create A Garden You Love?

Can you create a garden you love? Of course you can. With a little time, effort and tlc, you can transform your garden from a weedy mess into a pretty haven. 

Below I share my tips to help you as someone who has transformed several gardens over the years and who has loved planting sweet peas and sunflowers since I was small!

 

Have A Plan

First off, having a plan is key.

Researching gardening blogs, Pinterest and YouTube vidoes will collectively help you to literally plot how you would like your garden to look. Trusted sources provide you with advice on what is realistic for your garden as you embark on this journey.

Planting in autumn and spring for the best results, avoiding extreme heat will allow your garden to bloom so keep those seasons in mind. 

 

Get What You Need 

Take some time shopping for the things you’re going to need to begin.

You’re going to need to go back to basics if you don’t have decent garden equipment to hand such as a lawn mower and tools spanning shovels, trowels, rakes, and more. 

You might want to grow statement flowers such as vibrantly beautiful Dahlias, Hibiscus or Peonies and in that case, you’ll require extra large pots for outdoor plants so they have space to grow. 

 

Once you have the gear:

Walk around the garden, assessing where the sunny spots and shade are, and plan to plant accordingly.

Test your soil for pH and texture, adding compost to feed it, ensuring it’s nutrient-rich and also drains well.

Choose plants, flowers, fruit and veg that are suited to your climate and soil.

Ensure the plants have enough space to grow without overcrowding as this spreads disease.

Water first thing in the morning at the roots so the garden is nourished and during the warmer months to avoid them drying out.

Check and tackle pests when they arise.

 

We inherited a small orchard of apple, plum and pear trees when we bought our new house and YouTube was invaluable in helping me learn how best to nurture these already flourishing trees throughout the year as well as providing inspo for making jam and crumbles with our yield!

There really is nothing like growing your own fruit and veggies! In fact that’s an ideal place to start when it comes to your garden. Growing strawberries, lettuce, potatoes, beetroot, chillies and courgettes are all low maintence and easy to grow. 

But before you begin tackling your garden, assess what your current space looks like and work out how can you improve it with the time and budget available.

Soon enough, you’ll find gardening to be a joy and visiting nurseries will be your new favourite weekend activity!

 

A Little Bit Of TLC 

Finally, you need to ensure that you are giving your garden a little bit of TLC when it comes to maintenance. What you don’t want to do is spend all of this time creating the garden of your dreams, for you to neglect it. So, think about the maintenance needs when you’re creating the space and factor in the time you will need to keep up with weeding, planting and collecting your yield (if you have fruit and veg growing). 

You could of course hire someone to assist you on your green fingered mission and that person can also maintain your garden. A gardener doesn’t have to replace you if you don’t want, although they can but ours works alongside my husband and I which not only saves time but has improved our garden hugely. In the colder months, he replaced our fences too. 

Good luck on your journey, I hope you’ve found this piece useful.