Good  garden design, landscape lighting and water features makes for beautiful outdoor living.

There’s nothing better than spending relaxing weekends in your garden, or magical evenings entertaining family and friends outdoors. Good garden design allows you to make the most of your outdoor space, for whatever activities you enjoy most. Lush plant beds and water features will lend your garden a peaceful, tranquil ambience. A good landscape lighting design, and perhaps even a patio heater or two will give you a magical space to enjoy in the evenings, even into the colder months of the year. Planning your own garden design is a lot simpler than you probably think. There are hundreds of web guides, books and magazines with all the information you need on planting, watering and garden maintenance, building decks and patios, landscape lighting and water features.

Great garden design is all in the planning.

Before you begin designing your new garden, it’s very important to think about how you primarily use your outdoor space. Do you envisage a lot of peaceful, relaxing weekends just reading in a quiet, tranquil space, or having a lazy Sunday brunch with the family? Do you have kids who need a lot of space to run around and enjoy the fresh air? Perhaps you enjoy entertaining large groups of family and friends, either during the day at the weekend, or in the evenings.

Another important factor to take into account is the amount of ongoing maintenance which is going to be required for your finished garden. You need to be really honest and ask yourself whether you enjoy watering and gardening, repainting the deck, sweeping the patio and cleaning the water features. Some people find doing these kinds of jobs the most relaxing way to spend a weekend, while others find them a real chore, and put them off until the garden is looking a little sorry. Your own personal preference should guide the design choices you make.