House & Garden

Creating A Luxury Garden On A Shoestring Budget

How often have you stumbled upon photos of a beautifully kept garden and been overcome with envy? Or, likewise, have you ever found yourself at a gathering with friends and wished you, too, could have a luxury garden? Perhaps your budget just won’t allow you to spend big on transforming your garden. Well, it doesn’t need to. With a little bit of creative thinking and a can-do mentality, you can easily create the garden of your dreams from scratch.

Contrary to popular belief, a luxury garden doesn’t need to take a sizeable chunk out of your bank balance. No, instead, you can embrace the following tips to make sure that you get the very best bang for your buck. Take it from me, transforming your garden has never been easier. So, stop gazing dreamily at your Pinterest board, and let’s focus on getting everything together.

The very first habit you need to get used to is that you’re going to need to do a lot of the grunt work yourself. The biggest reason that the costs of a new garden begin to soar is through the labour. If you can cut that out, you only need to worry about paying for the materials. In that case, you better start brushing up on some tutorials.

Before that, though, how can we set about achieving a garden that will be the envy of all your friends and family? Take a look at a couple of the ideas below for inspiration.

man gardening

Do It Yourself or Not?

There, of course, will be some things that you can easily take control of and do all by yourself. If you’re starting at the front, it’s about improving your home’s curb appeal. This means how it looks to passersby. One of the most common ways for people to give their front of house a bit of added luxury is with a beautifully crafted garden path. You can find the perfect stones for this online, but putting the pieces together is easier said than done. There really isn’t any reason that you shouldn’t be able to do it yourself, though.

Likewise, you won’t always be able to handle things by yourself. You’ll have to make sure that you reserve some of your budget to pay for labour for those things. For example, a lot of people want some decking in their gardens. It’s becoming a popular trend. The good news is that you can easily put it together yourself with pieces of wood. If you want an added balustrade with a glass infill, for example, you might be best leaving that to the professionals. It can get expensive if you get it wrong.

Another way to add tons of luxury to your garden without having to recruit the help of a professional is through gardening. Flowers can add a real sense of character to your garden. This is especially helpful if you already have an avid interest in gardening. If not, then you should probably start now! Look online for ideas of pretty flowers you can plant and which seasons they thrive in.

walking-garden-dog-outside

Grass, Paving, or Both?

This seems to be quite a common debate to be had when it comes to luxury gardening. You’d be hard pressed to find people that can come to some sort of agreement. Paving, if done correctly, can look absolutely brilliant. The truth is, though, that it costs a hell of a lot more than just planting some grass seeds. Deciding which one fits your budget will go a long way to cutting costs.

Of course, there is no reason to suggest that you can’t have a real luxury garden comprising solely of grass. Given that it’s a much cheaper option, you’ll be able to invest heavily in other areas. Whatever you do, though, make sure that you maintain it properly. There is nothing worse to look at than poorly kept turf!

If you can afford it, the best option would be to utilize a combination of both of them. That way, you get the best of both worlds. You should probably stick to some kind of formula that incorporates two parts grass to one part pavement. Remember, when it comes to your paving stones, they take a lot of upkeep too. You’ll have to learn how to deal with weeds quickly and effectively. Otherwise, your garden will look unkept. Not at all what I would call a luxury.

Again, learning how to lay the paving stones yourself will save you a lot of money. But equally important is the building materials that you use. There are many different types of stones out there, and all of them have different properties. Avoid the cheaper options like the plague. You want to upgrade to the best you can afford. Space them out if needs be, as a way to keep costs low.

garden outdoor setting

Choosing Your Furniture

Once you’ve mastered how your layout, you can begin to think about furniture. Now that you know exactly where there is going to be patches of grass, pavement, and decking, we can plan around it. You should already have a bunch of plans about what look you want to achieve. If you don’t, then I suggest that you take some time to do some research. Look around for ideas and inspiration.

If you’ve found that your budget is starting to dwindle by this point, you could look at second-hand furniture as a viable option. You’d be surprised by the quality and standard of the things that people are willing to part with. Make sure you shop around extensively. You’ll be able to find lots of hidden gems out there.

You should aim to get all of this preparation work done throughout winter. I know it can be difficult to embrace the cold, but this way, you’ll have the perfect garden to start enjoying come spring. At that point, your new luxury garden will really start to come to life. Invite friends over, show it off to them, and hold parties in your new space.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.