How to design your garden

Assess your site
First thing's first - walk into every corner of your existing garden and look around in all directions. You will need to work out what's worth keeping in situ, what's worth moving around on site and what should be removed altogether.

The main sight lines from inside the house are vital, but also consider how the house will look when you are in the garden looking back towards it, and whether it can be softened with planting. Plants such as box balls are extremely useful for formalising areas, and will thrive in both sun and shade, whereas olive tress and alliums, for example, need a sunny spot.

Draw up a site plan
Measure your site and sketch out a brief plan. Size, shape, aspect, existing boundaries, slopes and existing soil conditions all form the vital framework of your garden and so, whether or not they can be changed, you need to take them into account.

Make a note of any areas of poor soil, the sunny and shady spots, where you feel secluded, where you feel particularly exposed to onlooking neighbours, and any areas that are particularly difficult to maintain, such as sloping soil that might spill onto paving areas.

This analysis will help you make identify some key decisions; such as where to place the seating area, where's best to grow herbs etc. and will form the basis for the next stage of the design.

Establish the condition of your soil
Dig a few test holes around the garden to get an idea of where the good and poor areas of soil are. Leave the holes until it rains heavily (or pour a bucket or two of water into them) to see how quickly the soil drains, or whether it holds on to water.

Work with existing structures
It may be possible to work existing structures into a re-design, reposition them in a better spot or update them to work with the new design and materials.

Boundaries are essential for marking out a property's permieter and for providing some security and privacy. If any work does need to be done on them, it should be done first, so that other areas aren't trampled upon at a later stage.

Measure slopes and level changes
It's well worth measuring the overall slopes across the garden to get an idea of of how many steps or level changes you will need to get from A to B if the whole garden is to be accessible. Use a couple of sticks stuck into the ground and run a taut piece of string between them. Use a spirit level for accuracy and measure down the string on each stick to the lowest point. Compare the two to find out the difference in height.

Review your main plants
Trees and shrubs are essential to most gardens for the sheer volume they add, as well as the cover they provide and the wildlife they draw in.

If you have overgrown trees that are too dense, they can probably be pruned, or the canopy lifted so you can walk under the tree. It's important to check whether you are in a conservation area and, therefore, have to abide by local laws, or whether there is a Tree Preservation Order on any particular tree before you undertake any tree surgery.

Work out your budget
Be realistic about what you will be able to achieve within your existing time, space and budget allowance.

To save money, go with the existing levels. Here are all the possible costs that need to be considered for a garden makeover - you can work out what you will be able to manage yourself and what you will need to call in the professionals for:

Soft landscaping (turf, plants and labour)
Accessories such as lighting, irrigation, sheds, furniture, water features etc.

Clear the site
Once you have a fixed design, the clearance may only involve removing excess vegetation from the site. Or you might have some removal of hard surfaces such as paving and the sub base. It might also require some re-levelling. This is physically demanding work but the final levels before construction are important, so don’t over look or under excavate.

Walling and other boundaries
Boundaries are essential for marking out a property’s perimeter and for providing security and privacy. If any work does need to be done on them, it should be done first, so that other areas aren’t trampled on at a later stage. Walls are expensive to rebuild, but if they are leaning, wobbling and dangerous then there are no short cuts and no choice but to make them safe.

Start your construction (DIY)
Putting down a timber edge for a new lawn or laying a landscape fabric requires fairly basic skills, so you can probably do these yourself.

If you have some carpentry skills, decking is a good DIY project. When it comes to the digging and laying of foundations, building steps and walls and laying down paving, the professionals may make it look easy, but to get a high-quality finish and to ensure that all the drainage falls the right way takes practice.

There are also on-site health and safety issues, and guarantees of the work by a professional that you can’t always give your own handiwork.

Planting
Lay out all the plants on-site first, trying to space them according to their future spread. Plan two or three years ahead for perennials and longer term for trees and shrubs. Keep standing back and looking at the distances between them, trying to imagine how they will grow together, and tweak them around until you’re happy. Even the most precisely scaled planting plan will be altered once the plants arrive.

Ongoing maintenance
A garden is never static and a little ongoing maintenance will ensure that your garden fulfils its potential. Most tasks are simple and fun, and if the garden is designed correctly, it will work for whatever time you have available.

Adapted from Joe's Urban Garden Handbook by Joe Swift, £11.93 (Quadrille Publishing Ltd), at Amazon.