Garden Design Or Garden Catastrophe?

Everybody loves a good home and garden re-vamping show, but when it comes to designing and completing a project in your own backyard the task gets a lot less appealing.

Personally, I am a enormous fan of gardening shows. Born without the inbuilt green thumb, my humble back garden is usually consists of some patchy grass and a collection of dying herbs, plants – still sprouts and in their original plant pots – forgotten somewhere in the back corner.

Just like most reality television shows, these “real makeovers” are never what they seem. Is it really possible to conjure up landscaping ideas, add in 2 water features, create a planter box and distribute some carefully placed garden ornaments round the yard all in the space of a weekend?

And more to the point, if that insanely good looking “gardening expert” truly was carrying ceramic pots around all day, would their makeup still be that picture perfect? To me that token soil smear on the face is always a little too well-placed

If you, like me, don’t seem to have the possibility of a celebrity re-vamp occurring in your garden any time soon, it may just be time to take on the job yourself. And if, like me, you’ve been watching every single gardening show on air for the past few years, you’re sure to have unlimited garden designs hidden up your sleeve.

Unfortunately for us, ponds and wrought iron outdoor fireplaces actually have to be paid for – and those babies are not in the bargain bin. While ceramic and terracotta pots may look great on television, what they didn’t show you are both the price and the weight, so unless you have a deep pocket and the muscles of Governor Schwarzenegger, maybe best to start with a few potted plants to get you in the groove.

And keep in mind that unless you’ve got a team of tradies working backstage, getting all of those pot plants and garden features in place is going to take more than a mere 48 hours.

It seems I should just stick to artificial plants and basic garden furniture.

To find concepts for your own garden designs, take a look at the stockists of designer homewares and garden features on dLook – Australia’s local web business listing.