Spring is a great time to get stuck into the garden. Important principles to consider when designing your outdoor spaces include establishing a strong relationship between house and garden, ensuring consideration of sun, shade, shelter, creating well-proportioned spaces and remembering that all gardens mature and change over time. With these design fundamentals in place, you can personalise the spaces to suit your lifestyle and complement your house. Here are three design ideas to make the most of your garden.
Go wild. Even on a small scale you can attract birds, bugs and lizards to your garden by planting to provide food, shelter and nesting space. Get online to find out what native plants originally grew in your part of the city. Your garden can look good year round and you will also be doing your bit to increase the biodiversity of where you live.
NZ native planting in a Christchurch coastal garden
Bring the inside outside. We all love the long evenings during the spring and summer months - why not create an outdoor dining and entertainment area as an extension of your indoor living space. A covered deck or paved area will provide shelter from the elements and together with an outdoor fireplace or fire pit creates a cosy space extending the time spent outside. Outdoor kitchens – including stoves, fridges and benches let those cooking enjoy the sunshine and be part of the social atmosphere and make entertaining fun and easy.
A covered outdoor lounge and dining area - cosy around an outdoor fireplace
Grow your own. Growing and harvesting fresh, healthy food from your own garden is very rewarding and provides great learning opportunities for children. If space doesn’t allow for a home orchard or full size vegetable garden there are still many ways to integrate edibles – espaliered fruit trees, pots and planters and even sprinkling a few edibles through ornamental garden beds.
Growing giant pumpkins - great fun for the kids
Throw in some yummy vege...
