Moving home can be stressful and the garden is often last on the list of things to do. A new-build garden is often a blank canvas which can seem daunting and they can often look a bit uninspiring.
But fear not, there's a lot you can do to get the best from your new garden.
Here are our top rapid-fire tips:
Top Tips:
- Plan: Make mood boards of styles, features and garden ideas you love. Magazines, books and websites can be a treasure trove of information.
- Use the Little Eden quiz: Our handy quiz helps you figure out what style of garden you like best and gives personalised plant recommendations for you and your garden.
- Don’t forget the plants you brought with you: In the stresses of moving house, any plants you bring with you can easily be neglected. If you’ve bought lots of plants with you, it’s well worth spending an afternoon planting as many of them as possible into the ground. If you can’t get them into the ground, group them in large pots, as they won’t dry out nearly as fast.
- Get that fence protected: It’s a great idea to paint and protect your fence now whilst it's clear of plants. This will help keep it rot-free for up to 15 years. Using colour can create great affects in your garden, and using darker colours in a smaller garden and then planting climbers in from of the fence can actually help increase the sense of space!
- Get the big things sorted first: It pays to decide on the long-term plants first, such as trees and hedges - are you overlooked ? Will you need privacy in the future? Do you want to create shade or attract wildlife? Get trees and hedges in first and they can grow happily while you get everything else together in time. Soon enough you’ll have privacy and birds will be regular visitors!
- Sort that soil: You’ll be amazed at the junk builders leave in the garden - rubble, rubbish, even tools! It can be compacted and poor quality which isn’t great for your lawn or plants. It’s much easier to spend a bit of time sorting your soil now whilst the garden is empty (and you might not even have a lawn yet!) Add a lot of organic material (manure) to help improve the soil - about a bucketful for every square metre. You can alos add bark chippings to areas you;re not ready to plant in just yet - it’ll stop weeds growing and as the bark breaks down, it will improve the soil structure - great!