Transform Your Garden Into a Haven

September 30, 2015 by

What’s your dream house like? Back when my age was but a single digit, I dreamed of living in a castle surrounded with acres of gardens teeming with flowers and fruit trees. I’m sure many of you once shared the same dream. Alas, fairy tale dreams are eventually awakened by reality. Now, my ideal home is more attainable than that Disney castle of my childhood. Aside from being comfortable and cozy, my dream house should have a little Zen garden to retreat into when I need some mom me-time and a quaint landscaped garden where the entire family can enjoy Sunday breakfasts or weekend barbeques. The gardens should be trimmed, but maybe with a few wild bushes here and there. And of course, the eternal presence of beautiful butterflies and bees having the time of their life. Some natural stone paving from somewhere like gardenstone.co.uk wouldn’t hurt, either.

However, our current lodging has limited space (much like most lodgings in the metro today) and the only place we can create a semblance of a garden is the roof deck. Fortunately, I found some great ideas on how to transform our roof deck into a relaxing garden from these landscape architects here. I found their infographic on 11 Ways To Transform Your Garden very useful.

11 Ways to Transform Your Garden

From Visually.

Of the 11 ways listed on how to transform your garden from synthetic turf to water features, here are three will do wonders to our small roof deck – Decking, Planting, and Garden Lighting.

Decking can provide a wonderful focal point to our outdoor living area. Aside from this, it can also create a usable area in our roof deck. With a few furnishings, this can become a great place for Sunday breakfasts with the kids, afternoon teas with friends, and maybe even romantic dinners with my husband. We know someone who has plastic decking in their garden and it looks amazing, it’s super easy to clean aswell.

There are people out there who are very talented when it comes to the world of DIY that they would be able to build decking in their back garden just like that. Imagine being able to do that! But with this being said, not everyone was presented with such a gift. If you fall under that bracket, maybe it’s best you left it to the decking experts to help build you your dream decking area. At least you know it will be done professionally.

Planting flowering plants and herbs in pots and shallow planters may not make for the perfect garden but it’ll have to do for our roof deck. Now I just need to check out which plants can thrive in roof decks. If you have suggestions, please do share them with me. 🙂

Garden Lighting is another inexpensive way of sprucing up any space. Even just one lamp can change the vibe of any garden. I remember my husband telling me something about solar-powered lamps that absorb light energy during the day and automatically turn on at dusk and turn off at dawn. Perhaps we can use those for our garden lights.

“Home Gardening” by winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These three are fairly inexpensive ways to transform a space of less than 50 square meters into a relaxing garden nook. If you’re living in a small space in the city, you may think it impossible to create your own garden, but these easy ways to transform your garden can make the seemingly impossible possible. 🙂

Filed Under: Home Improvement, House Matters Tagged With: ,

It’s not all about style. What your garden bench says about you.

August 5, 2013 by

Do you often ask yourself how to decorate a small patio or balcony and make it look nice? It’s perhaps a little far-fetched to say you can tell someone’s personality from their garden bench. Yet, I do find you can tell a lot about someone’s taste and style from how they adorn their garden and this includes the outdoor garden bench that they choose. I always want my garden to look neat and tidy. Obviously getting the right garden bench is important but also keeping the trees and plants in order is important as well. Sometimes I find gardening hard, which is why my friend recommended that I check out a website like https://www.treequote.com/, as these types of companies can provide a tree service that suits my needs and help me keep my garden tidy. I can let them do all the hard work, whilst I can sit on my bench and watch my garden bloom. When I first started looking for a bench for my own garden, I naturally wanted the bench which would be ideal for my particular garden. As much as this comes down to personal taste, I found there’s other considerations to take into account. These may be helpful when you’re choosing your own garden bench. So, here’s some of the qualities you may use when choosing the ideal bench for your own garden.

WOOD OR METAL

One of your first considerations should be whether you’d like a wooden bench or a metal bench. I personally have always had a fondness for wooden garden benches. Likewise, teak has always been my own favourite wood and with it being such a hardy wood, it’s truly is a natural when it comes to garden furniture. Teak has an almost golden colour to it I find, however, you may prefer a painted finish rather than natural wood. Popular colours for garden benches nowadays include olive and cream though red can be a surprisingly apt colour in the right garden.

bench type

HOW MANY WILL YOUR GARDEN BENCH SEAT

Another quality I considered early was size. The bench had to be relative to the size of my garden. If the bench is to be mainly used by you and your loved one, then a two-seater bench should be sufficient. If however, the bench will be used for more social gatherings, then a three or four seater may be preferred. A bench which can seat two people is generally just over one meter wide, a three-seater is one and a half metres wide and a four seater bench can be around 2 metres wide.

bench size

STYLE IS SO IMPORTANT

There is such an abundance of different styles nowadays when it comes to garden benches. This really can indeed say something about your own personal taste. You may prefer a classical style or a more modern style, for instance. This style should blend in with not just your garden but your house and surroundings for the best effect.

So when you’re choosing your own garden bench, make out a list of the qualities important to yourself. When it comes to garden benches, this will immediately give you more chance of finding that ideal bench for your own garden space.

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All images taken from www.gardenbenches.com

Filed Under: Home Improvement, House Matters Tagged With: ,