Relaxation time is extremely underrated these days. An average person is leading a highly stressful life full of drama at work, bills, mortgages, and other symptoms of modern humanity. We’re so engulfed in our daily reality that we often forget to relax.
That’s a costly mistake for most. Speaking of relaxation, there’s no better way to do so than to spend time surrounded by nature. If you can’t visit the great outdoors as often as you’d like, you might want to consider creating a beautiful garden. Here’s how to do it in 8 steps!
Pick the Right Type of Garden
Gardens come in a variety of types. However, we can reduce all of these different types to two distinct categories — flower gardens and vegetable gardens. It’s a common misconception that vegetable gardens are more of a chore rather than a place of relaxation. For some, growing and maintaining veggies is the most relaxing thing in the world.
Your job is to figure out whether you’re that type of person or someone who would rather spend time surrounded by colorful flowers — scenery similar to that of the Vallarta Botanical Garden. It’s worth mentioning that you can create a hybrid garden as well. In fact, it’s well known that certain species of flowers and some veggies tend to have a symbiotic relationship. There are no limits here aside from your own imagination.
Patio — The Foundation
We’ll stick to a flower garden for this guide as planning a vegetable garden is a very complex subject on its own. We’ll cover vegetable gardens in another guide. Every flower garden needs to have a solid foundation in the form of a patio.
You can do an uncovered patio or a covered one in which case you can set up a gazebo. And picking the right gazebo isn’t difficult, but you’ll want to find one that perfectly matches your needs. Either way, a patio represents an element you’ll use as a reference point for further works.
Choose the Right Furniture
A patio, no matter how intricate and aesthetically pleasing, won’t do you much good unless you furnish it with comfortable furniture. After all, the main point of having a patio in the garden is to lay back, relax and enjoy the view. Comfort is a must in order to do so.
Of course, patio furniture is a matter of personal taste. We suggest getting a set that can accommodate at least 5 people since there’s a good chance you’ll be sharing your garden with friends and loved ones.
Make a Rough Layout of Flowers and Flowerbeds
The organization is everything when planning a garden of any kind. With that said, you’ll have more leeway with planning a flower garden. Still, you need to come up with a layout of where each flower is going to be planted, account for the distance between two flowers, account for the dimensions of flowerbeds and any landscaping you intend to do.
Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to separate the flowers from your grass. Not only will that make maintenance of both much easier, but clearly separated flowers and grass just look better overall.
Landscaping
The next step that follows is usually landscaping. Landscaping involves altering the terrain, terrain features, and decoration. Consider this step as laying a foundation, or setting the stage for your plants. Visit H Potter Products for landscaping supplies and ideas.
You can do most if not all of the landscaping on your own, or you can outsource this part of the process to professionals. Both routes work. However, if you’re outsourcing landscaping to a pro, make sure to understand what kind of maintenance is necessary to keep up the aesthetics.
Choose Your Plants
Everything up to this point has been in preparation for the main event — choosing the right plants for your garden. There are a few ways to approach the flower and plant selection for your little slice of backyard paradise:
- Select flowers based on color – Colors are everything as far as flowers go. Of course, you’ll go with color tones and combinations that match your personal taste. That being said, sometimes a bunch of different colors has a more soothing effect than careful color matching. Again, this is a matter of personal taste.
- Select flowers based on their bloom time – Not all flowers bloom at the same time. As much as this can be a nuisance, it can also be an opportunity. You can select several species of flowers that bloom one after the other. That way you can have flowers all year long.
Think Vertical
Planing a garden requires you to think in more than one dimension. Planting flowers and plants into the ground is just your fence line, walls of your house, and other vertical elements. All of these are suitable for hanging flower pots and vertical garden solutions.
Beyond Aesthetics
The last step to setting up the perfect garden is to go beyond aesthetics. A garden that is both functional and beautiful to look at is the type of garden everyone strives for. What is implied by functionality in this context?
There are a number of things that add functionality to your garden, starting with an outdoor kitchen. Kit it out with an Ooni Karu Pizza Oven from Botanex to make your outdoor cooking extra special. What better way to spend a summer evening with your friends than to cook for them in your garden as you’re all relaxing among the colorful flowers you’ve so carefully selected? You will never regret installing an outside kitchen.
If cooking is not your thing, you can always build a cool firepit if you’ve got enough room. The size of your pit will dictate how far away from any plants it should be located. Needless to say, whenever you’re dealing with an open flame, you should be exercising maximum caution.
Take Your Time
Setting up a garden takes time. It’s often not something that is done in a single season, even if you have all the free time in the world. The fact of the matter is that setting up a proper garden takes trial and error, which is time-consuming. That being said, every ounce of effort you invest in creating your garden will pay back in multiples.
