We tend to think of our gardens as open, blank spaces. But of course, they never are. We need to border them with fences, treelines or hedges, we need to ensure they’re navigable, and they need to remain in good condition. In other words, we need to implement features and provisions and careful maintenance to not only make them look good, but to keep them functional.
As such, it’s good to review exactly what functions your garden serves. Of course, before you start out with garden furniture, add garden lighting for visual appeal and ambience at night, and water features, and similar it’s good to make sure of the basics.
Those new to home ownership are best off starting small, adding features bit by bit so the garden becomes manageable and hospitable. A good place to start is a garden shed, which adds storage and shelter for garden implements like a lawnmower or your gardening tools. From there, you might wish to consider the following advice:
Hosepipes & Power
A good hosepipe can help you water your plants, clean your car, and entertain your children and animals. It’s important to ensure that there’s no active hosepipe ban in your area, as this can sometimes be required in order to preserve water provisions during the hotter months.
In a separate area, establishing an exterior power connection that can be used for garden lighting or cabling for tools, will help you exercise better control over your garden where you need it. Make sure to install plastic enclosures to keep that outlet safe and free from the weather. You may even use an empty installation to hide a small wall safe and key to let yourself in and out of the house (without having to hide this under a mat).
Handling Depth
Steepness and depth in a garden can seem fairly frustrating at first, because negotiating inclines restricts you from what you can do. For instance, a steep garden isn’t always a good place for a small child to run around in, because they could easily fall.
However, with good handrails, staircases leading down to the flatter area, or a small ramp for accessibility, and as the good old fashion discipline of landscaping, you may be able to cultivate this space more capably.
Water Runoff
It’s important to implement helpful water runoff within your garden to prevent pooled water and other drainage issues. Water runoff can be achieved through good garden landscaping, side drains and swales, and a worthwhile guttering system attached to the fascia board of your roofing system. You may also design a rain garden designed to capture most of water not being drained, with plants that thrive in very wet conditions being planted to handle some of that pressure. This might not seem like an added “feature” of the garden, but you can bet it reduces headaches related to pooling water and the soil erosion that can cause. As such, it’s a worthy investment, and absolutely a smart choice to make.
Healthy Turf
Healthy turf not only improves the general condition of your garden, but it makes the space habitable. After all, it’s unpleasant to have a garden picnic on dead grass or dirt, and without foundational stability, it can be harder to implement garden features, like a trampoline, garden furniture, or climbing equipment and swings for your kids to enjoy. Healthy turf can be purchased by the roll and implemented fairly easy into your garden, provided you care for and nurture it as it should be.
Healthy turf simply looks nicer and is a pleasant start to a garden you cultivate, inspiring you to invite friends over or practice your green thumb in a flower garden or vegetable patch. If there’s any form of garden utility worth feeling inspired by, it’s that.
With this advice, we hope you can feel more capable towards increasing your garden utility, and designing an area that works for you and your family.
It may take a little time to cultivate the exact garden space you’re looking for, but always think back to your goals for the garden. Keep utilities simple, and they’ll provide the ground necessary for continual care and development. If combining all measures on this list, you should develop for yourself a comforting garden space to take pride in, to work with daily, and that remains usable year-round, even during harsher weather conditions.
As you do this, the garden (and garden care in general), will become more familiar and achievable to you. That in itself is worth the effort.
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