Are you planning to add to your landscape?

As autumn and winter move in, with leaves changing into many hues of red and gold before falling to the ground.

The weather starts to turn chilly, the growing season is coming to an end or is it? Some plants will head towards dormancy, others being more frost resistant will provide the last gasps of color, before winter sets in.

For the luckier ones living in warmer climates, not so much changes

If only we could all enjoy everyday scenes like this !

and for some others the climate has changed enough to wonder if it’s time to convert the ubiquitous lawns

Sometimes I would call in and cut the clients grass to get away from the office. — Are we going to have to change this view?

into something more akin to a dessert landscape or perhaps a Mediterranean or Xeriscape landscape.

Very low maintenance, Mediterranean style

Now is a great time to start planning any changes as you can follow some simple guidelines.

First establish a budget, then look at the existing and consider what you might want to change and why. Write down a wish list of likes and dislikes, add if I could I would do this, etc,.

Now it’s time to decide if you want to do the work your self, find a contractor to start gathering information on materials and costs etc or engage a designer who can work with you to produce a plan and a program?

Each method has it’s pros and cons, and is often decided by available budget and or available time to allocate to the project.

My experience has been that most busy people are also quite successful and can therefore afford to engage a designer, they also tend to like to know what they are getting into before they start , so a design works great for them, they also like detail.

Practical people can often gain most from actually working on the project themselves, they tend to be natural problem solvers and enjoy the discovery of ‘how to achieve something’

The best advice I learned was to consider what you would like in say 5 years time, as this is often the time when any changes are going to look their best, it is also a time to consider where you may be in your own life cycle, for example age of children, type of free time available etc.

There is a “Growing Trend’ towards sustainability, and growing one’s own food, now is a great time to look at all the methods available and how much time should be allocated to such endeavours.