Creating your own Eden
This section focuses on plants and garden features. Whether
you want to give your garden a complete makeover, or just add
a few plants or a water feature to an existing design, you should
find help here.
Not every product which we have available is described on our
web site, so if
you cannot find information on a particular plant or product, please email
greenleaf@merseymail.com.
or you can contact us via the contact form.
Before you set out to make changes to your garden, take a good
look at what you want from it. The more you decide on, the more
the garden reflects your needs and personality. We're always delighted to
discuss your ideas and help you translate them into your ideal
garden. We give some hints and tips on this page, and look at two special cases
in family gardens and relaxing gardens.
Does your garden need to be a place:
- for adults to relax
- for children to play
- for pets to exercise
- to dry the washing
- to keep bicycles or bins
- to grow food
- where you can eat outside
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- where you can get a bit of privacy
- where you can chat to the neighbours
- to cheer you up after a hard day
- that looks good from inside the house
- that looks good from the street
- Or something else again?
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Next, write down all the things you'd love to have in your garden.
Look at other people's gardens for inspiration, or come along to
Greenleaf Nurseries and take a look at some of our ideas. It's
good to get everything down to begin with - then you can pick and
choose later.
Where to start?
Think about how much time and effort you'll be able to put into
the garden. Shrubs and flowerbeds can be a bit more expensive
to establish, but they'll need a lot less regular care than a
lawn if the plants are chosen carefully. If it all seems a bit
daunting, why not choose one small area and work on that first?
Drawing up the design
If you are starting with an empty garden, you may like to use
a computerised design programme to work out the layout. "Alan
Dimmock's 3D Garden Designer" is a good inexpensive and easy
to use option, with a plant list and list of standard designs
which is suitable for UK gardens. "4D Landscape Professional" is
more fully featured, and includes a plant encyclopaedia, decking
design program and the wonderful "Photo Garden Designer" which
allows you to paste plants into a photo of your own garden to
see how they would look. Both are available from our online shop.
If you'd rather spend your money on things to go in the garden,
though, you can just make a sketch on paper - it doesn't have
to be a work of art, but it will help you decide what should go
where.
