7 Tips How to Improve Your Garden Style - DIY

This year you probably will feel like spending more time outside than inside of your home. And even if you haven’t planned too many changes in your garden, let me share with you some easy ideas that will make your garden looking best in your neighbourhood.

# 1 Plan Magnificent Entrance to Your Garden

This is the moment when your guests get first impression. Let them be in awe. Plant two same variety trees on both sides of the entrance. Decide for slow growing conifers to make it attractive all year round.  They will embrace the path to the garden.
Before you decide where to lay the entry path to the garden, have a look from the distance of approx. 10 meters and see what is the view behind between two embracing plants. Why is that important? Two embracing plants will naturally focus yours and your guests view exactly between them, so plan excellence accordingly.
This entrance will say “Hello” before you will make it.

# 2 Make your Fence More Attractive by Adding Flowering Fragrant Vines.

Any fence will be more attractive, especially at the entrance, or wherever you decide if you plan for a living fence. This is also adding purpose to your plants.
Make sure this are not annual vines, because you don’t want add yourself unnecessary work. Pick vines that don’t grow fast – they may easily grow out of control and you will not like it in few years.

# 3 You Don’t Have a Terrace or Patio? I am Sure you Want a Stylish One.

Adding a patio/terrace or styling the existing one makes huge difference to overall impression of the garden. You may do it by yourself, or you may let others do it for you. Cost of laying a patio is less than you might expect, but the difference it makes in the garden and your leisure experience in the garden is outstanding.
Can you imagine more romantic light than string lights hanging above that create the cosy  atmosphere as it gets slowly darker outside.

# 4 Don’t Forget Patio Containers

Few fabulous outdoor containers will style your garden and patio. You may buy them or make them yourself – doesn’t matter, just remember to keep them all in similar style or  when you group them in the garden let them be grouping in similar style.

# 5 Plant Trees and Shrubs in the Containers

When you think about planting in containers, forget annuals or if you can’t live without them, mix them with other kind of plants: shrubs and small trees. Look what they can offer, bright foliage in early spring or subtle textures.  Then tuck in some violas or nasturtiums, that later in the summer you could toss in your salad.

# 6 Grow Fragrant Herbs

On the kitchen window or close to your porch plant some fragrant herbs, so it will be easy to snip and tuck them into your grilled dishes, soups or salads. They will be eye candy as  well as heaven for your taste buds.

# 7 Why Not Inviting Self-seeding Annuals

Amazing red poppies, intricate ferns become easily friends in the scattered sunlight of a meadow. Then poppies will be self-seeding and stay as perennials, but you may add also annuals and get similar natural effect.

Volunteering Day at FDDS, Warsaw, Poland

In June the design was completed. And now, in October, which is earlier than anybody expected, we are starting the implementation phase. And all this thanks to people of good will who decided to devote some of their time and energy.

On October 4, 2018, a group of over 40 people appeared at 8.30 a.m. at the FDDS therapeutic center to begin the first step of starting the garden.

We started the day with a short presentation about what the foundation (FDDS - Foundation We Give Children the Strength) basically does. When we hear that they "provide comprehensive help to abused children" it sounds so generic that it does not always makes us comprehend the size of the abuse. But when we hear that in every ten children in the classroom, three of them are abused at home, it starts to sound a little different.

I guess the biggest impression on me was made by the information that the telephone helpline 116 116 for kids is calling nonstop and the line itself is supported by eighty consultants. Eighty. It stimulates the imagination.

The second part was my few words about the project.

Everyone, in a great physical condition and in motivated spirit, with a certain dose of shyness began to inspect the square of work. As you can see the garden bed is beautifully overgrown with weeds. It was cleared, we removed weeds, stones, debris, enriching the dirt with natural fertilizer, to prepare it for spring plantings.

I decided to cover the entire bed with a pinebark chips, to protect it against the overgrowth of the weeds by spring, improve the water conditions and enrich the soil a little while it will decompose slowly during winter.

Tools are waiting...

The gals from Foundation did their best to lead their groups bravely. In the picture from the left Magda and Iza, but apart from them there was also Ula and Kasia, which were not in the picture and an unknown group of heroes of the background, whose names I had no opportunity to learn. And on the right, my humble person.

The work is on. I must admit that before the start I was a little afraid if we would be able to do everything, because at the end we were still planting 40 plants. However it was enough to look at the  spirit and motivation of working volunteers. The work was burning in her hands! And it became obvious that we can do everything...

Less and less weeds, more and more exposed soil and still a lot of work in painstaking cleaning of the earth.

Discussion about what with what, how and where ....

It seems that the stage of scattering the bark on the rebate was the nicest, or at least the merriest occupation, because as you can see the competition started in whoever lifts the most bags. In the picture above, the winner seems to be ...

The bark comes and slowly gets nicer.

This was the final result of the work of 40 people for 4 hours. Beautiful!

It was a really merry and beautiful day. Everyone worked together in a good spirit, with a smile and a willingness to help each other. Although it was not easy, because it is one of the hardest work in the garden, requiring good physical condition. We were very happy with the good weather blesssing - it did not rain, it got sunny and warm.

Thank you so much for this wonderful day, which shows what strength we have when we unite in a common goal!

I hope to see the same group in the spring when the planting comes.

I greet everyone cordially!