Don 't put off all the jobs you mean to do (From Campaign Series)

Don 't put off all the jobs you mean to do

10:31am Thursday 22nd February 2007

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Last time we were looking at using your imagination and doing a little daydreaming in your garden (If you missed the last column - you can read it again on the Campaign website www.campaignseries.co.uk, click on leisure then gardening).

So, you may by now have jotted down some seemingly impossible garden dreams; but as I think we said last time 'good little ideas come from big impossible dreams '.

So now, keeping those ideas and dreams in mind, we need to give our garden 'a good looking at '.

If I am planning a back garden I like to look at it from inside the house, as that is where you will most often see it.

So take a good imaginative look out of all the windows that face onto you garden, try to consider the following: What could be changed?

Does the shed/ washing line have to be visible, could it move back and be screened by some planting?

(My beloved and I have enjoyed many an animated conversation about the potential whereabouts of the washing line!) Does the patio have to be square; could you make the shape less regular and more eye-catching?

Are your borders 'straight and narrow '? Why?

They could sweep around your garden drawing the eye, and creating focal points.

Could that hedge or tree be cut back to create more space and light?

Often, the only things that can 't be changed are your boundaries.

I always feel that even if there is not a single plant in the garden; the lines and shapes that you create with your patio/borders/pathways/gravel areas etc should be pleasing to the eye and 'make a statement' , the planting then is the icing on the cake.

What could be added?

Now this is where your little list of garden dreams come in.

Take some blank sheets of paper, draw in your house and boundaries, and then start to sketch. Be extravagant, be daring, be bold! In the end all you are doing is sketching. Play around with different shapes and flowing lines.

Try to imagine where your eye would be drawn to if you were looking at this imaginary garden, this area would be a focal point in your garden. You may have several focal points.

These are key areas that require some sort of feature plant or a seat or .boat.flagpole.beach bar, who knows - any thing goes!

The key question is - out of all those ideas what could realistically be done, and within what time scale.

Very often people give up on their dreams, because they seem so 'out of reach '. But all you have to do is set your self some realistic yearly targets, for which you can afford the time and money.

Don 't be put off by these apparent instant makeover gardens you may have seen on TV. It is much more fun to keep on building your dream year on year - but you need to have a plan that you are working towards.

You can always tweak the plan as you develop your garden.

We have been in our home for 4.5 years; we spent a year looking at the garden, and the last three years gradually developing about half of it.

The photo shows a new border we have built, using a sweeping curve (I do like my curves!).

As ever, please feel free to contact us, with your gardening problems and successes.

Now is the time to At this time of year as spring races towards us - hooray! - There are loads of little 'jobs' you can start to get done in the garden now, to save you rushing around 'playing catch-up' in a month or two.

If you fancy growing some of your own fresh vegetables, you should call into your local Nursery/Garden centre and pick up seed potatoes and Onion and shallot sets.

The onions can probably go straight in the ground, with a little Fish blood and bone fertilizer.

The seed potatoes need to be stood out in a tray somewhere light and frost free, so that they can start to produce little shoots - ready for when you plant them out later in March.

Now I know you! You 're thinking 'oh I haven 't got time, I 'll do it in a week or two'. Look, for the last 29 years (Not bad for 35-year-old, eh?) I have stood in garden centres at Easter saying 'Sorry we 're sold out to streams of folks who were going to do it in a week or twobut always left it too late; so come on, lets make the extra effort this year - you 'll be glad you did when you have loads of flowers and veg. this summer While you 're in the Garden centre have a good look through their racks of seeds and rows of plants; they will be receiving all their new seasons stock now, but will be low on customers, so you get the best choice and don 't have to fight the crowds that will be there in spring.

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