Tips to make you fall in love with your garden
Like so many relationships, we can fall in and out of love with our gardens. If you’re no longer going through the honeymoon phase with your garden, our top tips for rekindling your relationship with your outdoor space will help romance bloom – quite literally – once again this Valentine’s Day.
Reasons for falling out of love with your garden
It can be very easy to fall out of love with your garden, we see it all the time for a number of reasons. Here’s a short list:
- Although the bins greet me home each night and say farewell in the morning – it’s not exactly a romantic concept.
- When I look out of the window all I see are the jobs I haven’t done.
- I can’t get space to park outside my house so by the time I’ve walked from around the block I just want to get in the warm.
- My front garden is a sea of tarmac/paving with barely a spot of green to be seen.
- Before I can use the patio, I need to jet wash it… I think I’ll stay inside.
- If I step outside any time of the year except summer, I need to get the welly boots out.
- If there’s a path, I’ll slip or trip and break my neck.
- The approach to the house doesn’t make me feel welcome.
- The only decent lawn is on a slope – not very usable.
- There’s a pond that the kids could drown themselves in – better to stay indoors.
- Anything we grow dies or turns into a briar of gargantuan proportions.
Working on your relationship with your garden
But before you divorce your garden, perhaps you should give it one more chance; a garden takes some time and investment to turn it into a space that you’ll love and love to be in!
Figuring out an overall plan and then where on earth to start can be a daunting prospect; you may be worried about making mistakes, especially if it’s the first garden you’ve tackled. That’s where professional counsel can be of assistance.
If you do get it right, your garden will start to entice you, from love at first sight, to a long-term relationship which gives you as much back as you put in (and so much more).
Tips to help you fall in love with your garden this Valentine’s Day (and every day!)
Your garden may be just a small space, or it may be an extravagant mass, but no matter the size, the fundamentals of falling in love with your garden are all the same:
- Temptation: As you pass the window, a glimpse of something might invite you out.
- Journey together: There’s a journey or a route around your domain, your outside space.
- Space to be: There’s a sunny sheltered spot, to sit for a while, to read, listen to music, to chill out and just be.
- Keep the interest coming: With every season there’s something new and interesting and something to look forward to again next year.
- A place for sharing: There’s a place to share with friends and family to eat and drink. Yesterday you ate your dinner catching a quick bit of Netflix before bed, but tomorrow you slide your kitchen diner doors back and share your meal with those you love and the great outdoors.
- Shelter from the elements: When it’s too hot and sunny there’s shade, when there is a chill breeze there’s shelter – and maybe a fireplace to warm you. When there’s rain there’s cover so you can hunker down and see the world transformed by a million droplets and smell the rain on the grass.
- Moving boundaries: Where you’re hemmed in, the boundaries disappear to create a nestled oasis. Where there’s a view to steal, you’re drawn to the expanse or the rise and fall of the sun.
- Break the monotony: As size allows, there are increasingly more and different spaces to explore and enjoy, to do – or do nothing.
- Tingle your senses: Plan your garden to keep all your senses alive: the light playing through trees or planting; different patterns and shapes; the perfume of roses and jasmine; the sounds of water as it trickles over rocks and birds as they flit from branch to branch; the touch of tall grasses as they swish on a warm summer breeze; the flicker of tealights over the gazebo by the terrace.
- A garden room: Yesterday you took the train to work, but tomorrow you can walk through your own wilderness and sit in your garden studio, productive and in harmony – recharged before the next city surge.
With the right planning, you can be back where you’re supposed to be, at one with the environment, comfortably at home in the great outdoors, and loved by your garden, which is loved by you. Life is abundant, but in control, each plant is growing and grows with you year on year, wildlife seeps back into your garden and back into your life, and life seeps back into your bones.
If you’re not sure that you can rekindle your romance with your garden without some expert help, get in touch! At Dewlands Garden Design we specialise in using all these tricks to make love for your garden blossom once more.