If your garden planner includes growing herbs then you would need to locate the sunniest spots as most herbs thrive of sunshine. The best way to locate the sunniest spots in your garden is to walk around it at about midday. Obviously if the ideal spot was near your kitchen this would be very handy for the garden planner that is going to use the fresh herbs for everyday cooking.

Herbs will not thrive if they are planted in a low spot where the water will not drain away fast; they prefer soil that is drained efficiently. The recommended hours of sunlight needed each day for most herbs is six hours.

Most types of herbs require similar growing conditions so once you have determined the ideal location it is relatively easy to care for them if you have prepared the soil for planting. Make sure you fertilize the soil a few days before you plant your herbs. The ideal time to plant your herbs is in the spring when the winter frost has gone.

Don’t forget to mark in your garden planner that herbs need about a one inch of water a week but a little more when the weather is really hot.

If a client wants specific plants, flowers, shrubs etc… the garden designer will have know which plants will grow and where. Then a good garden designer will have the vision to simulate the client’s wishes if a particular plant they wanted would just not survive in their garden.

So, knowledge and vision are two of the main qualities that make a good garden designer. Then there is the passion! In any trade or craft that involves creating something whether it is from a blank space or a redesign, there has got to be the passion. The passion to create a garden that is beautiful and stunning to look at.

A good garden designer wants to create a garden that will grow, develop and mature over the coming years. Employing a professional garden designer can also enhance the value of your property. A garden designer will often say that your garden should be treated as another room in your house with your own personality marking it.

A garden designer could transform your existing garden by changing the entire layout and add features to update the over all look.

There is a system in vertical garden design often referred to in the industry as greenwall or mur vegetal. This is where stainless steel wire or trellis work is used for growing vines and espaliered trees and shrubs, or a hydroponic system which is more complex and involves growing plants using mineral water and no soil.

Vertical garden design can also feature several reticulated vessels using a conventional watering system, or using waterproofed walls with felt pockets and the more elaborate hydroponic system.

There are of course different styles of vertical garden design and they especially suit the small residential, city garden. The vertical garden design can often benefit visually from a sculptural feature or you can have the sculptural as a means of providing vegetables or fruit.

The more elaborate garden design to feature as an inspiration point in a vertical garden would be to have an architectural shape made from succulent plants (or fat plants as they are known to retain water and can adapt to arid climates and soil conditions). Some succulent plants can survive and thrive on no water.

For your vertical garden design you must make sure that the wall or walls that you will be using must be structurally safe as it will need to support the extra weight pressure.

It is commonly believed by many homeowners that garden landscaping should include a lawn. Again this is not necessarily a fact as garden landscaping can just as beautiful by creating a grassless garden. Garden landscaping can include a combination of rocks, natural or rubber mulch, ornamental grasses, flowers, trees and shrubs making your garden look interesting and the envy of your neighbours.

The time we spend every week during the summer months mowing the lawn, and not to mention the cost if you want to keep it in pristine condition, is far outweighed by the benefits of a grassless garden landscaping design.

Once you have instructed a professional garden landscaping company to plan and design your grassless garden you won’t be worrying about the commitment of having to mow the lawn every week and debating over whose turn it is to do so. Traditional lawns in garden landscaping are said to be requested by home owners less and less nowadays

Or maybe some lighting! Even if you already have some lighting you can add more without any major disturbance to your garden designs. You can have many forms of outside lighting like spotlights, decking lighting and down-lights, these are just a few that can enhance your garden designs just like lighting in a house can enhance features.

Outdoor lights featured in garden designs are very popular now and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to create some magical effects. Solar outdoor garden lights are easy to introduce to your garden designs as they don’t need electricity to work, hence no wires or power sources to conceal.

You can set the time sensors in each of the solar powered lights to come on at sunset after they have been powered naturally by the sunlight all day. Years ago solar powered lights for the garden were not as efficient as they are today. Also there are many more designs to choose from to enhance your garden designs.

A fantastic way to line your garden pathway would be with your choice of modern or traditional lights transforming the pathway into a feature. Or maybe light up the drive in front of your house which could not only look fantastic but light the way for cars or pedestrians; and act as a burglar deterrent!

Although you don’t necessarily have to be a garden designer to create a picture book garden, but you do have to be a garden planner if you want your garden to look good and be child friendly. The best way to start is to sit down with pencil and paper and think about what you want in your garden.

If you have a family then your garden planner should be made with them in mind, and when I say family I mean children. So for child safety maybe a fish pond would not be such a good idea but if you wanted water perhaps a pebble pond would be a child safe idea or some kind of water feature that doesn’t include a bowl that collects the water.

Your garden planner could include a hot water tap for filling the children’s paddling pool in the summer months. Most garden planners would include a cold water tap so why not a hot one! Then you are going to need storage space for the paddling pool and all the other children’s garden toys because the last thing you want is to have to drag them all indoors. So your garden planner should include a good, solid shed that can house toys, gardening tools and garden furniture.

Basically, you should think about catering for the family when creating your garden planner. Always on paper first because any changes that need to be made are much easier on paper. (and cheaper!)

Garden design is not only about plants and flowers, ask any garden designer and their response would most likely be, “that’s the easy part, that’s the fun part”. Garden design has to consider many factors like light, shade, colours, seasons and much more.

I am going to give some tips on garden design for a small area and there are some important things to remember. First of all you have to ascertain what part of the garden is in the shade, in full sun or part shade and part sun. Also remember that plants are affected by the seasons and in what part of country your garden is. With all this knowledge you can start to decide what flowers and plants are most appropriate for your small garden.

The next phase in your small garden design is for your borders and beds. Choose the tallest plants to be situated at the back of the border ascending down to the smaller ones in front. For your beds a tall plant surrounded by smaller plants looks very attractive in a garden design and using different shapes of surrounding plants will enhance the type of plants in the beds.

If the area is too small for both and you decide on beds then incorporate a good garden design border like rocks or a fancy fencing in metal or wood. If the size of the area only permits borders then you could use an ornamental water feature for the centre or perhaps an ornamental bird feeder.

Sometimes a practitioner who is in the profession of garden landscaping is called a landscape architect, this term would mostly apply to garden landscaping on a much larger scale like town parks or public gardens. However, domestic garden landscaping is a highly skilled profession and when those skills are put in to practice they result in your garden being transformed.

Garden landscaping can involve natural and man-made materials and garden designers would have all the knowledge necessary to use the appropriate plants and features to create that perfect outside space to suit the customers needs.

As with any garden design the most valuable contribution to the garden landscaping is the ideas and understanding of the garden project. To plan the garden design on paper where all the creative and technical specifications are drawn in detail is a priority.

These drawings can then be studied and discussed with the customer before any work commences and then any changes and adjustments can be made on paper. Factors in these drawings would also include the clients needs and preferences then the garden designers would study factors like climate, sunshine and shade, soil assessment and irrigation. All these and many more aspects have to be considered to ensure that any plants, shrubs, flowers etc… are going to thrive in that environment.

For a garden landscaping project there are innumerable other design factors and considerations when planning the design of a garden which will look stunning and will thrive in years to come.

Recent studies have stated that many of us wanting to sell our home have indeed spent money to improve our garden designs.

Interestingly, it is a fact that people under the age of 24 have used their garden designs as a means to promote a sale. Sadly, they are the most age group that are not concerned with the effect on the wildlife in their garden designs.

There are many leading property companies that will confirm that the garden contributes a very important role in a sale and can add significant value to the selling price. Research also states that the front garden designs are a valuable factor when potential buyers are viewing the property.

Maybe our garden designs could increase the value of our home. A well kept garden would certainly be an attractive feature to increase the potential viewers’ interest in a sale.

Over the last few years television has show many garden designs in makeover programmes and the message that this has conveyed is that garden designs are not just for the rich and famous. Whether our garden is large or small we can still have a lovely space outside to enhance our property.

Although, many of us just want to improve our garden designs to provide a pleasant, relaxing space that is beautiful to look at.