If you’re a gardening enthusiast, the chances are you spend a lot of time outside working to improve your garden. Sometimes making a few small changes can spruce things up a little, but what about when you’re looking to give your garden a complete overhaul? Landscaping your garden is a big project, so before you rush into it, here are a few tips.
Draw up your plans
You may not consider yourself an artist, but drawing up plans for your new garden is a crucial step in the landscaping process. Before calling in a professional, see what ideas you can come up with yourself and rope your family into helping you out. Sketch out a few rough plans and gather your family together to discuss which designs are best for functionality and to suggest changes. Once you’ve roughly agreed on a design or layout, use the BBC’s virtual garden designer to create something a little more professional looking.
Do some DIY
Before you get a professional landscaper in to manage the whole project, review what aspects of the job you can do yourself. If you’re particularly handy, then you might even be able to do everything yourself and save a lot of money, but even if not, it’s worth reviewing your skills and putting them to good use. Everybody at the very least should be able to plant flowerbeds and clear the garden of leaves and debris. If you’re not prepared to get your hands dirty your landscaping will cost you a small fortune, so it’s worth getting stuck in yourself. Larger jobs like levelling terrain and pouring cement for pathways will probably require the help of a professional and small heavy machinery, so you’ll still need to have a pot of cash ready for those stages in the redesign, but doing the majority of the work yourself will be both cost efficient and rewarding.
Buy in bulk
Like anything else, plants and flowers are often cheaper when you buy in bulk. For large areas, don’t buy the bulbs as and when you plant them, as you’ll rack up a costly bill that could have been reduced by simply buying the same quantity in one go. However, it’s also important that you’re not compromising on quality just to get a good deal; if you’re putting your hard earned cash into your garden, you want it to be a long term investment by buying bulbs that will flower successfully.
Know when to spend
Buying in bulk and saving money when it comes to flowers and plants leaves you the opportunity to invest elsewhere. Avid gardeners will probably already own good quality tools, but there may be some extras that you’ll need especially for this project, such as a chainsaw or a pressure washer like the ones from Anglia Tool Centre. As a gardening enthusiast, investing in your tools will come in handy for future maintenance too, or even for your next redesign, so it certainly won’t be money wasted.