Green havens which offer us seclusion from the harsh outside world are priceless. Spending time in nature heals us and fills us with much-needed energy to tackle the world. Our gardens can offer us much more than additional space. By investing ourselves in beautifying our gardens, we can make our entire living space better. You won’t need a professional landscaping company, as Australia is a beautiful country. All you need to do is take a step-by-step approach and prune that beauty to your liking.
1. Relaxing Garden Furniture
If you aim to spend any prolonged period outside, you’ll need a place to lay your head. Standing around in a garden is not ideal for enjoying your greenery. Garden furniture can blend in and “click” with your design ideas, adding property value and comfort. A discreet table with chairs, or a hammock strung in a shaded spot, can make all the difference in your garden.
The amount, type and colours of garden furniture depend on the individual garden, so we recommend starting small. Buy one table with two chairs and place them next to flowers or beneath a tree. From there, you can expand. Or not if you choose to remain minimalistic. Going big and sprawling can be achieved with pergolas, gazebos and garden decks. When your garden furniture is large, it becomes the centerpiece around which you build your garden.
Such a different design philosophy puts your plants in second place, mustering plants towards furniture and structure design. Plants become accessories to enhance your garden furniture, and there’s nothing wrong with going in that direction.
2. Go wild with plants
A garden can only be as beautiful as the plants inside. It may sound redundant to plant plants in your backyard, but you’ll be surprised by how many people leave an open lawn with absolutely nothing else. Not that there’s anything wrong with minimalist garden design, but an organic lawn, which is like a green carpet, yearns for decoration.
Flowers can be in any colour you wish, where combining different types and patterns can become a natural painting. Trees and pines can offer shade, wonderful smells and privacy. You can go for vines that quickly spread on a wall, allowing you to weave them to perfection. Or you can go with bushy plants and mould them as you want.
Other options include turning your garden into a fruit or vegetable paradise, allowing you to truly enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labour. Plants can also be from different countries, allowing you to achieve a certain theme. For instance, you can plant bamboo and Asian plants to create a meditative oasis. Or you can go with tropical plants and palms, if you aim to smell the seas and oceans.
3. Introduce lightning
Shining a spotlight and playing with shadows, lights, angles and intensity, adds a whole different and needed perception change to any garden. Light offers you something new to do with your garden, and opens up nighttime activities. A well light garden where it’s daylight at any time, or a subtle and romantic one, wish lights that shine for selected people, are both beautiful, with all the options in between.
Light does not have to be an expense, because you can always install garden solar lights, which pay for themselves in the long run. Thinking about Mother Nature and our surroundings will put you in the correct mindset and set you on the green path. Light therapy is a natural need because our bodies need sunlight and respond positively to well-light areas. When you’ve already made a presentable garden of which you are proud, it only makes sense to shine a spotlight on it and introduce it to the world.
4. Tiles and paths
Order and tidiness are beautiful. When organizing your backyard, you can only go in two directions. Let it grow and be wild, untamed and lush, with no particular order than the one you see. Or choose the other option on the spectrum, and that’s diligent and measured order. Laying tiles and pathways thru your garden creates areas and sectors. Each can be used for your ideas, and your backyard can become the fertile ground for anything.
One place can be for vegetables. Another is the BBQ pit, while an area near the wall is for rose bushes and vines. Pathways are guidelines and roads, for quick transitions between your garden visions. If you can’t decide on one theme and wish to create something unusual and quirky, paths allow you to mix different designs, as each has a designated spot in your garden.
5. Water elements
Being in tune with nature implies surrounding yourself with natural elements. Gardens have earth, plants, air and light. In the same way, plants need water to survive, and so do we in more ways than one. Listening to the sound of running water is therapeutic and healing, allowing you to relax and enjoy your garden. With a small fountain or a garden stream, you can introduce the natural element of water to your design.
If you wish to go big, installing a swimming pool and turning your garden into a designated party area, filled with energy and excitement is also the way to go! Gardens with water features can be made into a meditative zen heaven, where you can nestle down and drift away, allowing your fountains and streams to drift your worries off. Watery surfaces also reduce the overall temperature in their area, and we all need to cool down after a long day.
Nature is beautiful, and we are realizing its importance every day. Having some of that beauty in our backyards and gardens is priceless. Throughout our housing history, gardens have always been a vital part of any home design. Treating gardens like rooms and living areas will let you know how important they are. When pleasant weather comes, we all move to nature and outside, aiming to spend as much time as possible, before the change. Each season brings beauty, and we can all enjoy them in our gardens. After all, that’s what our gardens are there for.
