Green Fingers: Having designs on your garden
In an ideal world we would like to be able to come home from work and almost instantaneously go into a relaxing space to chill out. This is what your outdoor space can provide.
Being outside and close to nature brings a multitude of benefits, which are not always that obvious, but it is usually a positive sense and feel good factor, which permeates your being at some stage after immersing yourself for a while in the fresh air.
There are obviously parts of the country where you like to be for a variety of reasons, much of which is to do with relaxation and taking it easy but lack of time in our increasingly busy lives means that we cannot do this as often as we would like.
In an ideal world we would like to be able to come home from work or whatever our daily routine is, and then almost instantaneously go into a relaxing space to chill out, and this is what your outdoor space can provide.
Whatever area you have to yourself, be it a balcony, small backyard or a large open garden, it is ‘Your Space’ and you can make it as intimate, private and unique as you wish.
Most of us have an expertise in some form or other, while for a minority there is a rare breed of people that have a whole range of skills and can put their hand to anything.
Typically with gardening these days, people just do not put too much thought into their design and their layout just evolves in a haphazard way, and for the most part it works.
In hindsight, I do think it is worthwhile in most cases to work out what you want from your space and try and make some sort of plan incorporating your ideas.
If needed, there is outside help from a wide variety of sources, including the internet, library, books, television, garden clubs, other experienced gardeners, professional horticulturists and landscape designers.
All these can be of great help, and at least you will get on the right road, as too often in my experience, people just jump on the bandwagon and spend a lot of money, only to discover a few years down the road that it has not worked out.
The only word of caution from using the internet is that the ideas originate from all around the world and quite often are unworkable in our country.
Painting, decorating and changing parts of your home is part and parcel of how your living space evolves according to your current tastes and needs. It is the same in the garden where nothing stands still as there are usually some plants growing there.
Therefore the design can change many times during the course of a lifetime and with it should come a fresh approach, interest and enthusiasm. The autumn through winter is a good time to reflect on your garden and to look at all aspects critically and decide if there are any changes to be made.
There is no hurry as the garden is going to sleep shortly and there are many dormant months in which to mull things over. Planning should not be rushed but when a decision is made, that is the time for action.
Within a few weeks the winter onion sets and garlic will be available and they can be planted into a plot of ground vacated by a previous summer crop. More people are opting for planting onions in this way as they then obtain larger and earlier crops by the following summer.
There is an eight-week window to sow new lawns, and you can also over-sow and feed established ones that have bare patches.
If you have any queries or comments you are welcome to share them with me on 051-384273 or orchardstowngardencentre@hotmail.com and if of general interest I will include it in a future article.
