It’s becoming increasingly well known that spending more time in the great outdoors is good not only for our physical health but also for our emotional wellbeing and mental health. In fact, some medical professionals are actually prescribing spending more time outside as a treatment for many conditions. One of the simplest ways to experience more nature in life is to create a relaxing and attractive garden or outside space at home, but it’s not always clear where to start. Whether you have a small or large garden, a patio or a balcony, here are six essential landscaping tips to help you improve your outside space in 2020.
1. Embrace vertical gardening
Even people who own or rent a small home or flat with restricted outside space can create a green
space to enhance their life. From a flat windowsill to a farm with acres of land, the best way to
maximise your green space is through vertical gardening. Using wall planters, trellis, wall vases, flower
pot rings, hanging baskets and trailing plants, you can create a dazzling display on a porch, balcony or
patio or add more levels of beauty to your garden.
2. Become more eco-friendly with composting
Sustainability is a growing concept in gardening and it looks set only to increase in popularity in 2020.
There are plenty of ways to ensure your garden is supporting the environment including planting
flowers for bees and other pollinators, using natural pest control methods and composting.
Composting is creating a pile of organic kitchen and garden waste which will become natural fertiliser
for the plants, enrich the soil’s fertility and reduce your carbon footprint as you are not sending waste
to landfills.
3. Try upcycling and repurposing
While on the subject of being more eco-friendly, there’s a growing trend in gardening for upcycling
and DIY’ing items rather than buying new and contributing to the issue of unnecessary consumerism.
For example, you could make a flowerbed or wall planter out of a vintage bathtub or sink or turn a
damaged birdbath into an ornate flower pot.
4. Include a water feature
The sound and sight of a water feature in a garden can be a source of great relaxation and is a very
refreshing addition to an outside space. Whether you opt for a pond, a birdbath, a fountain or a small
rockery with a waterfall, you can create a real focal point as well as providing a source of water for
wildlife and birds. Take a look at Water-garden.co.uk for inspiration.
5. Aim for low maintenance
With busy lives to lead, most people are opting for low maintenance gardens, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean that they have to be dull or lacking in colour. Brightly coloured foliage from shrubs
is a simple and low maintenance way to add bursts of colour and evergreen flowers like
rhododendrons will look stunning all year round.
6. Grow your own food
Again, sustainable and eco-friendly gardens are the way to go and being able to grow your own food
and herbs is a huge part of that. We are more aware than ever before about how our food is produced
and the easiest way to control that is to grow it in your own garden. This also has the added bonus of
enabling you to eat the freshest and tastiest ingredients, invite dinner guests to pick their own and
teach children about growing and eating herbs, vegetables, and fruit.
