10 Ways To Create The Garden Of Your Dreams

From a complete makeover to a few key improvements, take advantage of January’s downtime and start planning how to make your plot better than ever this year

With the list of gardening tasks substantially reduced, January is the ideal time to think about what your dream garden would look like, and more importantly to plan how you can make that dream a reality. While the garden sleeps under its sparkling duvet of frost, you can sit inside, cosy and warm, looking out of the window and letting your imagination run free.

No matter how much you love your plot, there’s likely to be parts of it that you would improve, whether it’s major changes or more minor tweaks. For some, the January planning will entail addressing one or two adjustments, such as livening up a dull border, hiding an ugly fence or planting nectar-rich flowers to attract more bees and butterflies. But other gardeners may feel the need for a complete overhaul.

What’s your style?

If you want to create an entirely new look, it’s a good idea to spend time thinking about the garden style you want to achieve. Maybe you long for a cottage garden with lots of herbaceous perennials; or perhaps a formal layout with symmetrical borders and topiary is more your cup of tea. Maybe you want to incorporate bright colours, or pastel shades, exotics or more naturalistic planting. You might even want to mix and match more than one style. There are so many possibilities.

Once you’ve decided on the overall look you want, you need to plan how to make it work in your garden – for example, you could create a flavour of the Med by adding aromatic cistus and lavender to a sun-baked border, planting a dwarf cypress tree and dotting the patio with terracotta pots filled with herbs. Just remember to factor in practical considerations such as the soil type, aspect and amount of space you have.

Here are 10 suggestions to spark your creativity and help you achieve your best garden ever in the coming months.

Get clever with colour