Improving Your Gardens

 Improving your gardens

7 in 8 people in the UK have a garden, but sometimes it's difficult to know what you should do with yours. So we've asked some lovely people for pictures of thir gardens so that we can provide some recommendations on what could be improved, changed or added to make each and every garden sparkle, and be fit for purpose.

The New Mum

The owner of this garden is a new mum (congratulations!) Bearing that in mind, it's a fab idea to introduce bright colours into the garden. Bright colours help to stimulate the mind of young children so having a beautifully colourful garden would be ideal for a new mum. Introducing a baby to all the new colours and scents of the world will give them a healthy start to life, and a pretty place to play.

• Introduce colour into the garden, possibly digging out a border around the garden and planting some flowers of all sorts of different colours. Create a rainbow effect around the garden, with reds followed by oranges and yellows etc.
• Once a baby starts crawling, you will need to ensure there is no cat or dog poo lying around the garden, the last thing you want is to be wiping cat poo off your pride and joys hands and face.
• Try and pad any edges of furniture in the garden, to avoid so many accidents.

The Person Who Hates Gardening

This garden belongs to someone who really dislikes gardening, as we can probably tell from the unruly grass and weeds. Unfortunately the person who lived here before enjoyed gardening, so there is quite a lot of bushes and shrubs surrounding the garden. I would probably recommend replacing the grass with a patio to make it easier to maintain, but that obviously costs money, so it's really about keeping on top of things before they get out of hand.

• Use a strimmer to cut the grass to a manageable height and then mow the grass to a short length.
• Keep on top of the mowing. Mow once a week between May and June
• Trim the bushes back once a month where needed.
• Use weed killer on any stray weeds along the side pathway and then remove a week later
• Do not plant flowers or plants which need upkeep - it may be tempting to buy those beautiful azaleas, but unless you want to be spending a lot more time in the garden nurturing them, don't do it!
• Install a main feature in the centre of the garden, like a fountain or a statue ... make it a square or rectangular one for ease of mowing.

The Avid Gardener

This garden is already pretty much sorted. Beautifully pruned flowers and bushes and gorgeous garden features. So there is very little that needs changing, but there are a couple of ideas which might improve on what's already there.

• Adding in a lovely rustic bench, conversation seat or swing hammock at the back of the garden.
• Add a little more brightness to the garden with some extra colourful flowers around the edges.
• Adding a beautiful bird table or bird bath would also make a wonderful addition to this garden.

The Blank Slate

This garden belongs to a new build house owner, so it is a pretty basic garden which allows for a completely blank slate. We can see that they have already begun to plant some flowers and plants at the back which will look absolutely beautiful once bloomed.

• Some colourful planters could help brighten up this space. Using some basic rectangular wooden planters as a border around the edges of the garden would jazz it up at a reasonable cost.
• A bright compact shrub would be a perfect addition for adding both colour and height to this garden. So planting one of these in the far left corner would be a great focal point.
• If you were wanting to add a little more excitment to your garden fence, think about painting it a brighter colour, pastel shades are perfect for not detracting from the bright colours of flowers which you might plant.
• Alternatively you could incorporate a climbing plant such as a Clematis which will make the fence look a little less bland.

The Renters Garden

If you are renting your current home, you probably won't want to put too much effort into your garden. You can't exactly take the bushes and flowers which you plant with you to your next place (I mean you could I suppose, but it could be a lot of work), but don't let it put you off! You can still make your garden look beautiful without the hard work going to waste.

• Use potted plants instead of planting directly in the soil. That way, you will have some perfectly bloomed flowers and plants when you eventually move, and if you move into your own house at some point, you can take them out of the pots and plant them directly into the soil.
• Use garden features which you can take to your next home, whether thats garden ornaments, furniture or a fountain.

I hope this has given you some ideas and inspiration for your own garden. If you would like us to do a part 2 of this blog post and feature your garden, send us your photos!