How to Transform the Look of Your Garden

The title of this post shouldn’t make you feel overwhelmed! Transforming the look of your garden suggests something mammoth needs to happen. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s quite easy to change the appearance of your garden, with some helpful tips and pointers, of course!

CREATE A FOCAL POINT

A great way to transform the look of your garden is to have a central feature that will take the eye away from the less perfect parts of your garden. It could be a tree or a large shrub, a water feature, or a grouping of exotic or colourful plants in containers or planted together. Whatever it is, that focal point should provide enough drama to make a stunning first impression, and give your garden enough ‘wow’ factor to help you forgive its less desirable qualities!

LOVE YOUR LAWN

When your lawn looks better, your whole garden looks better. Think of the lawn as a carpet. Tatty carpet in your lounge would bring the whole room down, and a neglected lawn does the same to your garden. Give your lawn some much-needed attention – replant the grass if you have to – and that could be all you need to transform your entire garden.

FIX THE FENCE

This is along the same lines as our lawn tip. So, once you’ve fixed the lawns, fix the fence! Paint it, fix it, rebuild it… whatever you have to do to make the fence look better; do it. It could make the garden look better too. While you’re at it, paint up that boring old garden shed, screen the compost and wheelie bins, water-blast the paths and paving… all these auxiliary fix-it jobs will enhance their surroundings, particularly the garden.

GO WILD WITH COLOUR

Colour is very transformative in every respect. Paint the house and it looks like you have a whole new house. Similarly, adding lots more colour to your garden can really lift it to new levels. Flowers for all seasons, and colourfully leafed trees and shrubs are a very bright idea.

BREAK IT UP

Instead of one large uninspiring space, break up your garden into several points of interest. Use fence panels, hedging, trellis, raised garden beds, garden edging, or any other form of border, to section off parts of the garden into a separate flower garden, vegetable garden, and entertainment area.

MAKE YOUR GARDEN AN OUTDOOR ROOM

Don’t just transform the garden. Transform the way you use it! Replace the old garden furniture and while you’re at it, make your garden more of a living space. Buy the best outdoor dining and lounge setting you can afford. A new barbecue too, if you can. Screen the area with trellis, or put down pavers. Lighting for entertaining on summer evenings will also change the look, and feel, of your garden.

TRY A CHANGE OF PLANT SCENERY

Our final tip, and one of the more obvious. Be different and bold when planting. Say goodbye to the things you ALWAYS plant and try something new. If you have always preferred pastel or neutral colours in your garden, go for something more vivid. Say farewell to the English garden look and opt for natives. Don’t plant everything into the ground like you’ve always done. Put it in pots instead. Go against your instinct and transform your garden by trying something different.

Of course, you could make the transformation a mammoth one if you want to!

You can dig up the whole garden up and give a landscape designer a blank canvas to work with. For many of us, that’s a nice idea but an impractical and unaffordable one.

So, for the sake of simplicity, give these tips a try. You’ll be surprised how much of a change they could make.