The 'Blank Canvas' Garden

Having virtually nothing in your garden can be daunting. To help make designing it easier, let’s break it down into small steps that will produce the results you want.

Step 1

First, write a list of what you want. If you don’t know, look at books and pictures for inspiration or check out the garden ideas gallery.

Map out your garden onto a bit of paper (preferably to scale). If you're pushed for time, print off your property from Google Earth and trace over it - this is fine for rough ideas but do survey it properly before you do your final design, so everything fits when you come to build it!

If the thought of putting pencil to paper sounds scary, let me assure you that it’s nowhere near as difficult as you might imagine. It really is an important step, though.

On paper, you can see what’s working and what isn’t, and you can change it much more easily than trying to do it all in the garden. You’ll get a much, much better design for your garden if you start it on paper.

You don’t need to be able to visualise, draw well or any of the other things that people list as to reasons they ‘can’t do it’. If you can draw an approximation of a circle or a square, you’re good to go.

The ‘hardest’ part of the whole thing is probably the measuring (and that’s not that hard). 

Step 2

Answer these 2 questions:

• Do you want to sit in sun or shade?
• At what times of day will you be using the garden?

Ok, now you’ve answered those, where is the best place in your garden for your seating area(s)? I say “areas” because it might be that you’re mostly only home in the evening, so you might want a small seating area away from your main patio if the sun isn’t on it when you are.

Step 3

Now you’ve worked out the best places to sit, what other features are on your wish list? On your base plan (which I suggest you photocopy a few times before you start sketching) draw some bubbles to represent roughly where you want to put things like ponds, pergolas etc.

This will give you an idea of where everything should go. Now, it’s onto the next step.

Step 4

You need to get the right design shapes in place to enhance your garden and make the best use of the available space.

If you have a long, narrow garden, you need to make it look wider than it really is. Or if your garden is small, make it look visually bigger than it really is and create more interest and feelings of space. Getting this right will dramatically improve your garden and help it look good all year round, not just when plants are flowering.

We have 3 online garden design courses that covers this in depth.

And I discuss and demonstrate this in the FREE fast-track garden design web classes...

Step 5

Once you've correctly shaped the space for your size and shape garden, then you need to choose the right landscaping materials that will suit your property, style, design and budget.

Step 6

Add the 'WOW' factor with sculptures, garden mirrors, lighting and all the finishing touches that really liven up a design.

Most people make the mistake of trying to add the WOW factor before they've designed their garden - this never works and can cost a small fortune!

Step 7

Now the icing on the cake - planting. With the right design layout, materials and WOW factor elements, the plants are the final piece to get right.

It's not just a matter of getting the right plants in the right place, they've also got to look good together.

If you'd like to learn more and see a demonstration, then attend one of Rachel's FREE garden design fast-track web classes...