Retreat to a garden and patio design that’s beautiful year-round, and takes minimum fuss. What makes this possible? Carefree plants with continuous blooms, and a well-planned garden structure.

You don’t need to be a lawn and garden expert or landscape designer to do this. Here are a few tips for creating a super yet simple garden and patio design that will be a knockout!

The first step is to take a birds-eye view of your garden and patio area. Make a rough sketch of your space, and play around with a few designs until you like what you see. As you’re doing this, get some great ideas from existing garden and patio decorations. Pay a visit to other people’s gardens, or public gardens. Look through home landscaping and gardening magazines, find what you like, and develop plans of your own.

Decide what style or theme is right for you… formal, casual, rustic, Southwestern, Japanese… there are enormous possibilities. Then stay with that style and theme so the overall effect does not become confusing. For instance, you wouldn’t want to combine bronze garden sculptures of saints or cherubs with rustic wooden wagon wheels.  Read more...

It is of utmost importance to visualize the layout of your garden in accordance with the available space. To begin with, you could take a piece of paper and make a rough sketch of the layout you’ve planned for your garden. Having a blueprint of ideas and designs that you could implement in your garden is an aspect that shouldn’t be ignored. Some of the important elements you need to consider in design landscape of your garden should be paths, sitting areas, water features and the growth habitat of plants. If you aren’t too comfortable designing your garden, you could avail the services of professionals in this field. Garden Furniture
Sitting areas in a garden are very important. You could choose from a whole range of patio furniture consisting of a table, a few chairs and parasols. The quiet comfort of benches and swings will definitely add nostalgia to your garden. You could choose from materials such as plastics, glass, wood and metals for your garden furniture. You could also use patio heaters that will essentially be helpful in chilly winters. Fencing
A garden with proper fencing adds to its charm and beauty. Although hedges are commonly used to form boundaries in various sections of the garden, they soak up a lot of moisture and nutrients from the soil in the garden which may not be good for the other plants. You could use different forms of brick, stone or concrete to complement the various plants that you have in your garden. Lawn
The small little expanse of a rich green lawn forms an essential feature in the layout of any garden. The smooth surface of a lawn adds to the relaxed feel and visually supplements the neighboring plants in the garden. Sprinklers and lawnmowers have to be used regularly to ensure that the lawn looks fresh and trim. Pathway
Small pathways leading to a particular area in a garden are of substantial importance. They allow different areas in the garden to be easily accessible. They give the garden a symmetrical shape and add to its beauty. Materials such as bricks and stone can be used to mark boundaries of pathways. Ponds and Waterfalls
The presence of a waterfall in your garden has a magical effect on people. The sound of water gushing through the rocks brings a sense of calm that you experience in nature’s bounty. The flow of water through the rocks could be thundering or tranquil. In case you choose to have a pond, geometrical and symmetrical designs are preferred. Koi ponds are commonly used in gardens all over the world. Planning to have a pond or a waterfall requires a keen eye for detail, hence it would be appropriate to hand over the job to a landscape designer. Garden Lighting
A well-lit garden offers a spectacular view, especially in the after hours. Lighting is an aspect that shouldn’t be ignored while designing a garden. You could choose chrome or copper fixtures to highlight your pathway borders. You could also set up spotlights to showcase your flower beds or patio areas in your garden. Choose from the wide variety of solar lights available, to landscape your garden. Apart from the above mentioned designs and ideas for a garden layout, you could keep improvising on the arrangement of plants on a regular basis to give a new look and feel to your garden.  Read more...

A garden trellis design will create a beautiful environment around a home. A garden trellis design is the creation of expert gardeners who expect the spaces around a home to add wonderful atmosphere. These expert gardeners believe in planning a garden for maximum effect. They do nothing in the garden that is haphazard.

There are several great designs including the garden trellis design that are carefully created with just the right plants, structures and pavements. Each of these designs is meant to create a unity with all of the elements that go into a garden space.

A garden trellis design uses beautiful trellises as the focal point of a garden space. A trellis is a wooden structure that is used to create a unique garden. These structures vary in size and design. Some trellises are flat pieces of wood that are form a platform for the plants in a garden.

Other trellis can have round shapes on the top for another unique visual in a garden. These structures are available ready made in the local home improvement stores, and there are kits or plans available so the gardener can build one.

A Garden Trellis Design Will Receive Compliments Galore  Read more...

A patio is a transition space between the house and the yard. Depending on your preference, your patio design can run the gamut from an elegant open-air greenhouse to an outdoor living room. Regardless, a patio expands the living space of the house and creates a focal point out the window. By adding a personal touch to the overall property, your patio design affects the emotional and physical space by changing the view and showing your personal aesthetic.

Patios belong to the subset of landscape design called hardscapes-the non-plant material of your landscape design-that play a critical part of any garden landscape project. In general, when hardscapes are combined with green, growing plants, they create an outdoor living environment that invites you, your family and friends to come in, to sit and enjoy, to meander or explore. In this way, a patio is an extension of the home that is both functional and appealing to the senses.

Patio Design: The Beginning

These outdoor spaces come in many forms. The most common here in Houston is a concrete pad that is attached to the house. Things to consider while planning your patio design:  Read more...