Today – How to Enhance Your Outdoor Living Space
We all want a beautiful garden, but most of us don’t feel we have the time to put in the maintenance to keep it that way. However, if you explore Liz Lake’s portfolio, you’ll see it’s easier to enhance your outdoor living space without it becoming a full-time job.
What’s Your Garden For?
There are many types of garden, depending partly on the space you have to work with, but also on what you want to use it for. The Royal Horticultural Society suggests half-a-dozen basic styles, from the space-conscious urban garden to the traditional cottage garden. The question is, do you want something that looks beautiful, a place to entertain and relax, or somewhere for the children to play? Or all this and more.
Vary Your Surfaces
As practised landscape architect Liz Lake explains, a garden can be surfaced with paving, gravel, decking or grass. They all have their advantages, but there’s no need to stick to just one. If you divide your garden into different sections, like different rooms inside the house, you can make it versatile but harmonious.
A patio of either paving or wooden decking will offer a perfect space to entertain or have meals outside. Go for paving, of course, if you’re planning to have a barbecue or fire-pit, but make sure it slopes away from the doors, or you risk flooding your home.
On the other hand, paving can be slippery, and gravel may be better for the paths. Make sure, though, you underlay it with woven polypropylene material to prevent weeds from growing through.
Grass is a lot of work to keep cut, but a garden can be sterile without a lawn, not to mention less child-friendly. Keeping your lawn a regular shape will reduce the time it takes to mow. Alternatively, good-quality artificial turf looks as good as the real thing and needs no maintenance.
Flower Beds
Even if you go for a predominantly paved garden, chances are you’ll want some kind of flower display. View on The Guardian, Kate Gould suggests evergreens if you want to mask an unwelcome view, and smaller perennials to give a spectacular colour show. Both provide results that far outweigh their low maintenance.
Think about the predominant colours you’re going to use, too, and coordinate your garden to it. Fences or garden furniture that match the flowers can become a natural part of your garden, instead of intruders.
There are more tips found on myfashionlife, as well as on Liz Lake’s website, but the most important thing is that your garden does what you need it to.
How to Enhance Your Outdoor Living Space is a featured post