Gardens can be tricky places to try and plan for. They’re rarely set out straight, and the ground is filled with all kinds of lumps and bumps that’ll take some effort to work over, and you can spend a thousand afternoons out there and still feel like you’ve got barely anything done! You stare out over the horizon, in your sun hat and your gardening gloves, and all you can see are the imperfections in your layout, and the amount of work you’re going to have to get on with tomorrow. But let’s say you’re tired of feeling like that; let’s say you want to be proud of the garden you’ve cultivated for yourself. You want to sit out there, when the sun allows it, and admire everything you see. You want to have all kinds of bugs and beetles and bees making your garden a home of their own. All in all, you want your hard work to pay off! And with a little bit of help, it can do just that - one of the best ways to help you out on your gardening journey is to provide you with some layout ideas, so you can better structure how the garden is going to look, and actually make a plan to follow - it’s much easier this way! So, without further ado, here are some of the best garden layouts you’ll get the most use out of, because a garden should be both practical and beautiful, without a layer of impossibility. Succulents are wonderful all weather plants, so maybe they should get a look in on your garden plans?
A Flat Space with Complementary Colours
It’s the most simple idea you could think of, and that’s why it’s one of the best landscapes you could subscribe to. After all, if you’ve got a flat backyard space, with plenty of breathing and moving room, you could get up to anything out there! Invite your friends over for a wine party, or get the family round for a BBQ, or even just roll around the grass whenever you’re in need of a bit of fun. But if you’re looking to upgrade this idea a little, you could filter in a few complementary colours here and there. This will make your open and flat garden space look a little more coordinated, and there’s no harm in having some plants bordering your fence. But what colours work best together? Because they don’t all live in harmony! If you’ve got a nice green lawn, in any tone of the colour, popping some purple flowers around would work great. At the same time, if you’ve got an orange or light brown stained fence (or garden furniture), some blue and yellow flowers would look absolutely lovely. And if you’ve got some light pebbles or paving that leads up and down your garden, red flowers and fruit bearing plants wouldn’t look out of place!
A Focus on Human Use
Your garden should probably focus on the human element for the time being, if you’re someone who hasn’t been able to do much work out there. If it’s an overgrown mess of plants and trees, or it’s a bit of a concrete jungle, make sure you plan for your own use. Don’t feel too bad about this - allowing the right space and greenery for animal life and other critters can come later! Don’t overthink this idea too much; it doesn’t have to be a complicated matter! Focusing on how you intend to use the garden means you’ll need to plan out a design that fits what you like and love. So think about what you would use a garden for, or what the people in your home would like to use an outdoor space for - for example, if you’re a bit green fingered, you’re going to need a potting shed or a greenhouse to put out there. And it’s these big decisions that should go into your layout first, to act as cornerstones for anything else you want to fit in. On the other hand, if you’re someone who likes the hosting opportunities a garden affords you, you might want to pop a patio in first, and then work around that feature. There’s quite a few patio designs on the market, so make sure you shop around until you find one you like. You don’t have to stick to pale stone slabs or a bit of wooden decking or shingles, seeing as they can be quite the boring options in the modern day and age!
Somewhere to Grow Your Own Produce
Going on from the point above, if you have the want and/or need to grow your own produce, you’ll be able to put to use some of the best (and oldest!) garden layouts of all time. Seeing as it used to be absolutely necessary to use a backyard for agricultural purposes, as you needed to feed yourself, your family, and probably the rest of the village, these are some of the most tried and tested layouts that you’re going to love. One of the easiest to plan out is a row design. You section out your garden space into long rows, separated by walkways, and get a lot of use out of the space available to you. If you’d like to be quite conservative with your design, seeing as you don’t have a large sized garden to put to use, this could be the best layout for you. Rows also help the plants to take care of themselves, as they run from the north to the south of your garden, allowing for plenty of sun and rain exposure. If you have a moderately sized garden to your name, you might want to use a square bed design. A square design is usually marked out in sectors of four, allowing you to rotate your crops to keep the soil healthy. It’s just another very helpful way to keep the maintenance factor down. So, this vegetable garden layout will also allow you to maximise on the space you have by placing your fruit and vegetable plants in plain view of the entire garden, to act as the main feature. At the same time, it allows for a lot more room for moving about, meaning there’s still some mingling opportunities to be done out there!
Something Private and Sheltered
And finally, if you’re someone who loves the idea of a secret garden, and you love your privacy in quiet and crowded neighbourhoods alike, make sure you turn to some sheltered garden layouts. They can exist in the hundreds, because everyone loves the idea of creating a little alcove of nature that belongs to you and you alone! You could go quite simple here, and just use natural shade to make a secret garden. If you’ve got plenty of trees already existing in your garden, left over from a previous owner of the house or just naturally occuring because of the seeds in the ground, don’t cut them down. Fit them into your new garden layout plan, because they’ll work wonders in saving you money on buying a taller fence… And then use some leafy plants and shrubs to really complete the look on the ground - the more ferns and bushes you have out there, and the more your garden begins to look like something out of Jurassic Park, the better! Or you could go a bit more traditional, and try to keep the usable part of your garden quite small and select. You have a bigger space around the outside of this little alcove than you do inside the alcove, and that’s perfect! So, this will include putting up some barriers, which creeper plants can use to grow tall, helping to complete the private and sheltered look you’re going for. At the same time, you might want to create different levels, as a little stairwell going down into a secret garden works wonders for maintaining a sense of privacy. You can enclose a little bit of your garden away from the house level, meaning no prying eyes through those windows (or the neighbours!) and use plenty of paving bricks and wooden tones to help bracket the space in a bit more.
What Kind of Garden Layout Will You Plump For?
Gardens can be a mess, can’t they? There’s a lot of work to be done when you first arrive in them, and year by year, they need to be cleaned up and tilled out for the coming seasons. You can get a bit tired of trying to plan them out, and there’s no saying how long you might put mowing the lawn off for! Which is why it’s important to keep sharing tips like these. Gardens should be pleasant places, that are fun to maintain, and even more enjoyable to plan out and reap the rewards from. So make sure your garden layout isn’t getting you down - keep it simple, and always use someone else’s idea!
