If two similar neighbouring houses were for sale and one had a great designed garden, that one would sell faster. In fact, it is often literally the first thing potential buyers look at and are drawn to.

It may sound like common sense, but it wasn't that long ago that the garden was usually left until last or completely overlooked in preference for renovating the inside of the home for ways to add value.

Well these days, things are a little different.

Have you heard the saying about ‘synergy’–that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? (NB, I am not promoting any particular brand of petrol!) This is what we are aiming for in garden design. In fact, my best definition of design is simply, “making synergy”.

To achieve this we must have an idea, a conception of what the garden is to be. This concept might be no more than a certain atmosphere or mood (peaceful, luxuriant, stimulating, amusing), it might be an idea of beauty (symmetry, simplicity, diversity), it might be the best qualities of a place that we want to re-create in essence (the bush, sand dunes, a historic or contemporary garden). For designers of the really 'heady' kind this idea might be an abstract concept like Charles Jenks’ Garden of Cosmic Speculation (we’ll come back to that later!).

Whether you design and make your own garden or employ a professional designer, it is well worth spending time pondering such a basic idea before you do anything on site. An easy way to get started is to think about popular styles of garden like cottage gardens, sub-tropical, sculptural succulent, minimalist, high tech, Mediterranean, bush etc. These are a good starting point because they show the great range of character you could achieve. Think about which best suits your house and setting, then use your imagination to build on these 'borrowed' styles and turn them into something personal and original.

We all like to have nice gardens with healthy plants and the only way to ensure this state is to have a healthy soil-food-web. That means a soil that is teeming with microbes, beneficial fungi along with many soil creatures including big populations of earthworms.

The easiest way to determine that you have good healthy soil is by the number of worms you see when the soil is opened up. No worms, in a moist soil, means you have a problem and until rectified you will struggle to have healthy plants and gardens. Note that I say moist soil because when the soil becomes too dry, too wet or too cold you will be lucky to see any worms, even if you do have good worm populations.

OK, that's all for this week. I hope you've found Groundwork informative and stimulating.

Remember to send us your comments and feedback, and keep posting messages to the forum. That's what community is all about!

Regards,

Tim Durrant and the team at landscapedesign.co.nz