December 29th, 2022 by Sarah Miles

When the weather is cold and icy, as it is now, it can be hard to visualise and plan your garden. However, this can be a good time to step back a little and think about ideas for your outdoor space and what you want to get out of it in 2023.

Start by setting some goals

At the heart of any plan is being clear about what you want to achieve. Consider things like how you used the garden last spring and summer and whether that highlighted anything that wasn’t working quite right. If you didn’t use the garden very much last year, consider why that might have been (eg you didn’t have the right garden furniture, the layout wasn’t right, the garden didn’t feel appealing etc). Figuring this out could be key to developing a strategy for changing it.

Common goals for gardens often include:

• Creating more of a social space
• Creating a dining area
• Making it tidier/more inviting
• Making better use of the areas that attract the sun
• Making it more appealing to wildlife
• Dealing with issues such as patchy grass, becoming waterlogged, or plants not thriving
• Enabling plants to thrive better
• Using it to become more self-sufficient/growing your own food

Think about your budget

Before you can really plan, you need to think about what you want to spend, as a garden project can cover anything from tidying and weeding to full landscaping.

If you have a larger budget

A bigger budget could mean that you could bring in some outside help, such as a landscaper or gardener, invest in new garden furniture, or perhaps even install a new garden structure such as a summer house or garden office.

Winter is an excellent time to be buying in these kinds of products and services. Gardeners will be quiet at this time of year so will have good availability for helping you design your garden and will be able to book the work in before they get busy. Likewise, garden furniture is often discounted in the winter so you could get a great bargain and avoid the availability issues you tend to get in summer.

If you have a smaller budget

If your budget is small, don’t worry, because there are still lots of things you can do that don’t cost a lot and just make better use of what you already have (which is, actually, a more sustainable option anyway if it involves reusing and renovating rather than throwing things away and replacing).

These things are all inexpensive but can make a big difference:

• Rather than buying lots of established plants all at once, choose a more long-term strategy such as growing plants from seedlings (some of these you can start soon, indoors) or planting self-seeding and perennial plants that will keep coming back and increase in volume each year.
• Get your lawn up to scratch by nurturing it rather than re-turfing. Apply iron sulphate to encourage grass to grow stronger and greener (and you can start this now)
• Clear spaces that could be used for social or dining areas ready for the spring. This could mean tidying any mess out of the way or cleaning up hard surfaces to remove black lichen or mould and algae. You may already have the perfect spot, it just needs some TLC!
• Make plans specifically for your garden. Take some time now, before any work needs to start, to define exactly what your garden needs. Think about things like which parts get the sun, which parts remain shaded, what type of soil you have, what grows best etc. If you plan your garden around the actual conditions you have, you give everything the best chance to thrive so there’s no wastage. If you have issues such as the garden becoming waterlogged easily, you can incorporate better drainage or trees and plants that will help solve the problem. You may also find that the reason you didn’t use the garden as much as you thought you would last year is that you just had the furniture in the wrong position where there was no sun. Rearrange the layout a little and it could be a different story.
• Think about what you can spruce up/repurpose. If the garden furniture is looking a bit tired, or the shed looks scruffy, you don’t necessarily have to buy new, all you need is a paint sprayer and some imagination, and you can give them a whole new lease of life!