Designing a garden can be tricky, there are so many different aspects to consider. The size of your garden can be a limiting factor if it is a small area, likewise a tight budget can inhibit your outcome. Start off by listing everything you would want in the garden, list them as must have, would be nice to have and not really important. Measure your garden and draw up a plan of the area. Use graph paper or if on your computer, a programme which allows you to draw to scale and draw in the dimensions of the different areas. Make a few copies of your plan and add in the areas you would like to have in the finished garden; lawn patio/decking, kids play area, vegetable patch, flower beds and areas of shrubs or trees, not forgetting your garden shed or a summer house. Remember too that you will need to have an area for drying clothes. If it helps, cut out little shapes to represent areas of the garden you would like to have, or cut and paste little icons on your computer screen and do the same, add the position of your outbuildings and your patio furniture. If you are revamping an existing garden, draw that out as well for comparison when you have a final layout drawing for your new area.

You might also want to add to your garden plan, a floor plan of the rooms which look out on to the garden including windows and doors, drawing in line of sight lines to illustrate what you see of your garden through doors and windows which open out on to it. Try then not to site any utility features where they will be seen from your sofa or favourite arm chair.

When planning your preferred layout, take into consideration the aspect of your garden. Is it south facing or west facing? Where does the sun rise and set? What areas get sun and when? This will play an important part in your garden plan as it could determine what types of plants you have in certain areas, where you may wish to have a seating area or where you may decide to erect some sort of sun screening. It may also effect where you would want to position a children’s play area to ensure that they can play in a largely shaded area, or where you site an outhouse such as a garden shed, garden room or greenhouse.

It is also worth giving some thought to where you want to site certain aspects of your garden in relationship to your lawn. Check from your plan, what the route would be from where you walk into your garden to your garden shed or your children’s play area or any other feature which would see people walking regularly to and from and consider laying a path to help avoid wear and tear on an otherwise well kept lawn.

Having done all of this, you will have a rough plan of how your new garden will look and it is probably a good idea to start to thinking about how much it is going to cost. You can either go directly to a professional landscape gardener or get an estimate from them or if you intend to do most of the work yourself, you should start to put some costings together for materials and plants, shrubs and trees.

There is a school of thought which says that a nicely laid out, well kept, landscaped garden can add 5 – 15% to the value of a property, so from an investment point of view, that may be a good figure to bear in mind as a possible maximum spend if you are planning a totally new garden. Simply improving an existing garden will cost markedly less and these improvements can be tailored to your budget.

Hard surfaces such as paved areas for patios, paths, and decking are expensive but should last for many years if properly laid so be sure to prepare the sub-surfaces well, to ensure the longevity of the finished surface and avoid cracked slabs or tiles or prematurely rotting timbers. Similarly when laying a lawn, preparation of the area to be covered, ensuring that it is flat and even, can make the difference between a bumpy, lumpy area of grass and a smooth, attractive lawn.

In developing a garden, the expensive aspects such as patios, decking, terraces, paths, raised beds and siting of outhouses come first, but plants should not be ignored or treated as an afterthought. Plan what you want to plant, adopt a theme and plant around that. The more mature the plants, shrubs and trees you plant, the quicker you will see a mature garden but mature plants are expensive in comparison to smaller, younger ones so you may need to balance maturity with cost by prioritising the most important plants such as trees and specimen shrubs. Do remember, however that trees and shrubs will grow and as they grow they will fill the space around them, so as you plant, leave them room to grow, otherwise your garden will very quickly become overgrown. The moral there is to check what size your new plants and trees will grow to and leave them the necessary room to grow into their mature size, which will have the added benefit of you requiring fewer plants and reducing cost.

When planning your beds and borders, try to plant the taller plants and trees nearer the back of the area to ensure that all your plants are shown off to their best advantage, also bear in mind that trees grow out as well as up so leave them enough room to grow without being restricted by a wall or fence.

Most gardening projects in the UK do not need planning permission, with the possible exception of the height of walls or fences which form a boundary on to the highway and decking which exceeds 30cm in height. If in doubt, contact your Local Authority Planning Department for advice.

If you decide to employ a landscape gardener you will find suitable contractors close to you at; https://www.localsurveyorsdirect.co.uk/garden-landscape-design