Landscaping and Gardening for Your Home

Although Australians are spending more time outside, gardens can be difficult to maintain. In this article, we will discuss some options for your backyard to make it a space you want to spend more time enjoying and less time maintaining.

Vegetable Gardens

Producing your own food is a rewarding experience. Even tiny gardens or courtyards can grow food in pots and raised beds and these kinds of choices can create a pleasing visual spectacle as well as save you money in weekly groceries.

Some foods are easier to grow than others, but importantly some are more expensive than others. Chilli is one food that is expensive but well suited to the dry Australian climate making it a low maintenance crop that can save on bills. Maintaining a garden is a great ongoing meditation and a timeless exercise in learning to understand the local climate.

Compost

While perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing or sensitive garden option in heavily built up areas, a compost is a fantastic way to reduce your waste to landfill and give back to the soil. It will also produce highly efficeint fertiliser for your garden.

Home Sanctuary

The sanctuary is an evolving concept in home design that is basically a place set-aside for relaxation and meditation. A place to unwind from the stresses and concerns of your busy life. Some sanctuaries are small water features or ponds, backyard baths or a comfy chair on the porch. The essence of the sanctuary is your mental state when you occupy it so it is important to be mindful and cultivate an internal sense of peace.

The Native Appeal

Australia is a beautiful country. Given the stresses of our inner-city lives, having time to maintain the garden can sometimes be a luxury. With that in mind, it is useful to populate your garden with low maintenance species and the lowest possible maintenance species are local native species. These plants evolved to survive in the local climate without assistance and given the disturbances that suburbia and industrial agriculture have wreaked upon the native ecosystem it is a noble pursuit to repopulate the land with plants that belong there.

Smart Shading Options

Whatever choices you make regarding the landscaping of your garden, one thing is certain, you'll make the most of it. The summer can be harsh and could make the idea of entertaining outdoors a headache but Somfy have a motorised solution to help.

A Somfy-motorised awning can keep you and your guests protected from the sun during the day, and retracted in the touch of a button in the evening. Additionally, motorised external screens can be used to create an outdoor room, shielding you from the external elements, and even blocking out mosquitos to make your outdoor space a welcome retreat all night long.

If you are interested in beginning your Somfy project for your outdoor space, fill out the form to speak to a Somfy Expert!