Home Style - Collaborative Post
When considering a garden makeover, starting from the ground up is always the best way. The choice of paths, seating and planting areas can be defined by the floor type and sections created, depending on your preferred choice of materials. There are lots of things to take into consideration when embarking on a new garden venture, especially if you're on a tight budget. It's worth noting what's down already, what will need removing/replacing or what can be left as it is. You also need to consider what you'll be able to do yourself and what you will need an expert in to help with, this will give you a good idea of how much your costs will be before you get started.
Think about what you will use the spaces for, if you have children and pets then what will they need that they can use safely and what space you'll need to grow produce or plant shrubs. With that in mind, here are five different ways you can adapt the floor space in your garden so that it's perfect for you and your families needs.
Create pathways
Creating sections in your garden with pathways is not only practical but great for making smaller gardens feel bigger and adding some purpose to unused areas. Paths are great for wet weather and relatively easy to do yourself with a bit of work. If you look at the different options available for simple paths, there are many options you could complete yourself, you could maybe use your local domestic concrete supplier to get what you need to level out the area and top with gravel, block paving or slabs.
Artificial grass
Faux grass is not to everyone's taste, but it is a great option for families and creates a neat, colour punch that can be cleaned down easily, long lasting and perfect for shaded areas that wouldn't grow real plants or turf well. Although it can be expensive if you go for a higher grade style and you may need help fitting it and preparing the surface for installation, it's a strong hard wearing surface that looks great and will stand the test of time.
Real grass
Real grass is lovely to look at and although it does need more maintaining than artificial options, it doesn't get as hot in the sunshine and is a brilliant family friendly surface. You may need to replace old turf, prepare your space for seeding or maybe even take out old concrete or paving, which can all be done DIY style with a lot of work, or you could call in the experts for a perfect ready made lawn.
Loose aggregate
Loose aggregates like pea shingle are a super quick option that can look really effective, hide a multitude of sins and look amazing with a simple edging. This is a great 'quick fix' option that really suits older properties, but can be useful in any garden for problem areas that just need 'something', especially large or awkward shaped areas. This can also be a fairly budget friendly option and can even be found second hand quite often, needing a simple hose down and it's good as new.
Decking
Decking is another garden flooring idea that can be really helpful for creating sections and can look really good. Having just completed this in our own garden I can confidently say that this is something that can easily be done yourself and by finding an affordable timber merchant, it doesn't have to be too expensive either. Decking looks great when placed alongside contrasting materials like stone or aggregates, so it's well worth thinking about for a portion of your garden.
If you need garden design ideas to suit your home, have a look on Pinterest for some inspiration as there's some really clever uses of space - from balconies, small 'yardens' and large new build type spaces. There are budget gardening pages with heaps of tips and photos of peoples projects, so that's a good place to start too. Scribble down a rough plan on paper, take measurements before you shop and enjoy!
