Tag: garden makeover

A landscaped garden with dense green shrubs, a tree, a large stone bench, and a shallow bowl water feature in the foreground showcases the beauty of Japanese gardens.

Bring Japan to Your Garden

Written by coldev on 01/06/2025. Posted in Garden Advice, Garden Ideas, Garden Makeovers.

How to Design the Perfect Japanese Style Garden

It seems like everyone and their mum are going to Japan, even several people from our team have been lucky enough to go to Japan! For those who were fortunate enough to go and are reminiscing over the beautiful cherry blossoms, the intricate bonsais and lush maples, let us show you how you can recreate that same beauty in your own backyard.

And for those who weren’t able to go this season, but have been looking in envy at everyone’s stories, why not bring a slice of Japan to your own home and feel like you are there from your own garden.

Jump straight to the sections we’ll be talking about today:

Planning the Design
Types of Gardens:
– Small Balconies and Courtyards
– Small Gardens
– Medium/Large Sized Suburban Gardens
– Large/Medium Sized Commercial Properties
Design Principles
Consider Your Location
Incorporate Other Natural Elements
Maintain Your Garden

We’ll define the Japanese Style Garden first. It is an ancient art form that has developed from sentiments within Japanese culture and philosophy. It is about creating a space of tranquillity where you can reflect on yourself and meditate. There is a careful balance of natural elements between water, rocks and plants. It’s truly such a beautiful style of garden.

Let us tell you how you can easily create a Japanese Style Garden.

Planning the Design

The first step is to of course plan out your garden, you’ll need to take into account your location, garden size and shape, amount of sun, amongst many other things we’ll get into.

If this sounds like too much to contend with, book in a professional Free Garden Design with us and we can handle it all – we even offer Free Delivery on orders over $300!

Book your Free Garden Design here.

See if you’re eligible for Free Delivery here.

But if you want to do it on your own, here’s how to plan out your garden.

Take a look at the size and shape of your garden. You may be physically limited by what you have, but you aren’t creatively.

We are going to go through a range of different types of gardens, so you can skip to your one, but we recommend reading through each part because you’ll glean tips and ideas from other types of gardens.

Types of Gardens

Small Balconies and Courtyards

We are going to start with the most physically limited spaces – that of balconies and courtyards where pots are needed. Yes, you can still create a Japanese inspired garden in these spaces, and you’d be surprised just how many Japanese style plants can be grown in a pot.

From the quintessential Japanese Maple (upright & weeping) or Weeping Cherry to the flowering shrubs like Azaleas and Camellias, and then the supporting acts like Lime Lava and Nandinas.

The best plan of action with a space like this is less is better. We have an ethos of few pots but lots of plants – it creates a much more dynamic look and doesn’t clutter the space. What we mean by this is putting multiple plants in one pot.

You can have a tree with different groundcovers at its base, or even a variety of smaller plants in one big pot. Opt for classic colours like black or white to create neutral sophistication.

Small Gardens

So you got some soil and dirt, yay! But you’re still working with quite a limited space. Okay, this is what you do.

Pare back on the variety of plants and focus in on a few select pieces to create tranquillity. The good thing about Japanese Maples is that many of them are on the small side like Acer palmatum ‘Shaina’, Acer palmatum ‘Red Pygmy’, Acer palmatum ‘Mikawa yatsubusa’ and plenty of other choices.

You can also find Cherry Trees that are small like Prunus ‘Kojo No Mai’ Ornamental Cherry, Prunus ‘Falling Snow’ Weeping Cherry, Prunus ‘Rosea’ Pink Weeping Cherry or Prunus ‘Cheals’ Weeping Cherry.

Then you want to select a few supporting act plants that you can scatter throughout the garden for a cohesive look. The principle here is to choose around two plants, no more than three, and plant them in different parts.

So one corner can have the Japanese Maple with some Black Mondo Grass or Lime Lava planted around the base. Then in another corner you can have three Nandina bushes spaced apart with some Black Mondo in between them.

There’s so many different plant combinations you could go for, don’t hesitate to call us or come in store if you need some advice.

Medium/Large Sized Suburban Gardens

You have a decent amount of space you’re working with but don’t become overeager with the different plants you choose. Remember, simplicity is best.

A key thing to note here is that plants are usually arranged in odd numbers of 3, 5 or 7.

Consider all the different types of plants you can add in, such as:

Climbers up a wall like Chinese Star Jasmine or Boston Ivy
Groundcovers for between pavers or planted together in a small patch like Pratia White Star Creeper or Lime Lava
Small hedges like Japanese Box or Hakuro Nishiki Variegated Willow
Feature trees like Japanese Maples (Upright or Weeping) or Cherry Trees
Small shrubs like Nandina, Azaleas or Bush Wisteria

Although you can have colour in Japanese Style Gardens, we wouldn’t go overboard. Keep things neutral with a focus on greens and whites and the occasional splash of colour.

Make sure to put in a wooden bench in so you can sit and admire your garden!

Large/Medium Sized Commercial Properties

When planning a commercial property you are likely after something that is inexpensive and easy to maintain. Now we do think it’s worth it to splurge here and there on a beautiful feature such as a Japanese Maple (Upright or Weeping) or Weeping Cherry as they truly do raise the value of a place.

But you can find other plants for quite low prices, consider buying smaller sized plants and look around for bargains. You’re likely to find quite a few on sale in our nursery.

A huge amount of space can sometimes be just as tricky as planning a small garden, but we actually offer the same advice here. Just because you have the space doesn’t mean you should plant 50 different types of Japanese style plants.

Try to create little pockets or privacy within your garden using screens, and place benches throughout the space so people can sit and ponder. Keep in mind you want to create a space that encourages reflectiveness.

Mass planting is your friend, pick a few key plants and spread them throughout your property. It will create a cohesive look and simplify your design greatly.

In these larger commercial properties it becomes even more important to add other elements like a water feature, statues, pagodas, boulders and so on.

Design Principles

If you’re still struggling, return to the basic principles of the Japanese Style. These include:

Balancing the different elements of your garden
Avoiding perfect symmetry in all the arrangements, allow for nature’s beautiful imperfections
Considering the symbolism behind your choices – a rock can represent a mountain, sand can represent the ocean
Use hedges and walls to create a sense of seclusion and privacy

Consider Your Location

We mention location because some plants don’t work well in certain climates. For example if you are near the beach there are Japanese style plants such as Japanese Boxwood, Azaleas and Camellias that are sensitive to salt and won’t work well in your garden.

Or if you live in a particularly windy spot then you want to steer clear of Japanese Maples and Azaleas as you risk damaging the foliage/flowers. A good rule of thumb is to try and plant your Japanese Maples in more sheltered spots, although there are certain varieties that are hardier than others.

Incorporate Other Natural Elements

There’s more to a Japanese Garden than just the plants. One of the quintessential parts of the Japanese Style Garden is the water feature, whether this be a pond, stream or waterfall. Go the extra mile and even add in some brightly coloured fish!

Water features are expensive though so we understand if you aren’t able to incorporate one (though the Japanese may not).

What you can do instead is include some other natural elements like rocks, whether that’s larger boulders or small pebbles, sand, or gravel.

Add simple ornaments to tie the whole design in together such as lanterns, statues or a gazebo.

Maintain Your Garden

It’s important you don’t let your plants get unruly, now depending on what plants you choose, Japanese style gardens can range from low maintenance to high maintenance.

This can depend on facts like water requirement and frequency of trimming. You always want to make sure you are keeping your plants healthy and well-watered.

If you have a water feature, make sure to clean it regularly and check that the water circulation is correct.

Always keep the weeds at bay, nothing ruins the Zen style quicker than scraggly plants taking over your beautifully manicured garden.

Feeling inspired to create your own garden, but want some expert advice? Try our one-on-one garden design service with Chris. Together you’ll come up with a selection of plants along with a layout plan that gives you the look you want, as well as being suitable for your local soil and conditions.

get your own tailored modern garden design:

FIND OUT HOW

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New Year, New Garden

Written by coldev on 09/01/2025. Posted in Garden Advice, Garden Ideas, Garden Makeovers.

New year new me. You’ve heard that a million times before. As people start to get on exercise bicycles and reattempt crash diets, we wanted to slow things down and talk about a hobby that will bring unlimited benefits to your life and your loved one’s lives.

Now of course we’re talking about gardening. But we’re talking about gardening for a good reason, or well, several good reasons.

So let’s break down why gardening is one of the best hobbies to pick up in the new year.

Jump straight to the sections we’ll be talking about today:

The Many Benefits of Gardening
The Key to Success
How to Get Into Gardening
Keeping Up With Your Hobby
When You Don’t Have a ‘Real’ Garden
2025 Here We Come

The Many Benefits of Gardening

Gardening is one of those hobbies that positively impacts almost every aspect of your life, from mental health to physical health to even boosting your social interactions.

Gardening classifies as a moderate-intensity exercise, but it’s the type of workout you don’t really notice because you’re so focused on your plants. This exercise improves heart health, increases strength and dexterity, and lowers blood pressure.

But also the fact of it being an outside hobby means you are getting essential vitamin D and connecting to nature. Being immersed in nature is one of the most important things you can do in this urbanised world where we are spending more and more time cooped up indoors.

Think about how many times your mum told you to go get some fresh air, well now you’ll be getting fresh air on a regular basis.

When you garden you reduce stress and find peace in the small routine activities of planting something up or trimming your bushes. Even just go sit in your garden for a small time and you’ll notice how you start to relax and feel better.

Of course this is conditional on what you plant, but if you choose to get edible plants then you are also getting homegrown fresh veggies and fruits. There’s nothing more satisfying than eating food you’ve grown yourself – plus it’s better for you and your bank account.

Now once you’ve spent some time in the garden – you get to reap the benefits of just having a beautiful garden. This means having a wonderful space to sit in the sun and read a book or have friends over for a BBQ or play with your kids.

You get to control the level of effort you put into this hobby – whether you want to be a more casual gardener or a keen gardener it’s completely up to you.

The Key to Success

We want to chat to you about our philosophy when it comes to successfully starting this amazing hobby. The MOST important thing is…

Give yourself a win.

Choose something that is easy to grow and give yourself a win.

The reason why so many people lose their spark in gardening is because they get over-excited and choose complicated plants that are tricky to grow and then die on them. There’s nothing worse than buying plants that just keep dying on you, it would make anyone give up!

We understand how you can get caught up in all these different things you want to grow and all the beautiful plants you want in your garden, but it’s so important to start slow.

Choose something really simple and easy that is going to grow beautifully, and you’ll kick start your confidence. Also make sure you choose plants that are well suited to your spot and soil, if you’re not sure visit your local nurseryman.

Or you can just choose very hardy plants that can withstand almost anything.

How to Get Into Gardening

So now that we’ve convinced you to start gardening as a hobby, here’s how to do it.

Stop thinking about it and just dive right in. Just make sure to do it in the right sequence of events.

First, plan out your garden design or go get one done. We offer a Free Garden Design, it is a small deposit but you get that money back when you purchase your plants with us.

Our Garden Design is done by Chris, founder of Hello Hello and an expert gardener. He has decades of designs under his belt and an acute knowledge of plants.

Having a plan gives you a framework to operate off of, so you’re not just willy nilly popping in plants and ending with a disaster of a garden.

The second step is to clear out the space, you want to start with a blank canvas. Maybe it’s a new property you just bought, and the garden hasn’t been maintained well, or you’re looking at the garden you have and wanting to spruce it up.

Before you add, you need to eliminate. Clear out any rubbish and get to weeding. Weeding can feel like a MASSIVE job so we’re going to break it down into the easiest way to go about it. Start by spraying any perennial weeds with roundup. Leave it for a couple of days then finish clearing it by mowing it.

This next step will be the longest, but you can break it up into small chunks and work at it systematically. What you want to do is get a shovel and dig turn smash. What that means is dig your shovel into the dirt, turn the dirt over and smash the dirt up with the shovel.

Don’t do your garden all at once because your back will HURT. Instead, spend around 15 minutes after work everyday and work in sections through it.

Once you’re done, add some new good quality soil and start the whole process again. Dig turn smash. Dig turn smash. Trust us, it’s worth it. Also, you’ll find the second time is much easier.

Then get a steel rake and smash it up some more and smooth the dirt down with it.

NOW you’re ready to plant.

If you’re reading this around the time of publication (and you’re in Australia), it’s summer right now which is the perfect time for planting. Also it’s a good idea to use Osmocote and Soil Wetter.

We are a big advocate of NOT mulching or pebbling straight after planting. It’s actually a little secret tip of ours on how to have less weeds. Instead of mulching and pebbling, get a small wolf draw hoe and start weeding.

Cut the weeds off and then you can just leave them as they will shrivel up in the sunlight. Do this weeding process every two weeks for a few months and you’ll notice the weeds stop germinating. It’s a lot of upfront effort, but it will save you so much time and pain later down the track when you feel like you’re constantly battling weeds.

So now you got your beautiful garden and the weeds are under control, the next important thing is to lock in your watering schedule. Watering is a very important part of gardening to keep your plants happy and thriving.

We have an article all about becoming a master at watering, check it out here. Plus we have a video for those who are visual learners.

Keeping Up With Your Hobby

Now you could just plant up your garden and be done with it, but a good garden requires constant creation.

A garden is not a set thing, plants are constantly changing and growing. Don’t try and hold your garden still, allow it to evolve and contribute to the evolution of the garden.

Maybe there’s one or two plants that don’t perform well and you need to replace them with something else. Or you get ideas for other things you want to add in. As you get more of a knack for gardening you can tackle more tricky plants and try out different things.

Don’t be afraid to experiment, see what works and what doesn’t work. Have fun and play around with different ideas for your garden. With a great garden you have to be constantly developing it, then your garden will just keep getting better and better.

When You Don’t Have a ‘Real’ Garden

You don’t need to have a true dirt backyard garden to get into gardening – with the wonderful invention of pots ANYONE can have some fun with gardening. Now it won’t be on the same scale as owning a backyard/front yard, but you can still do quite a lot.

For example, you can plant a lemon tree and a herb in the same spot and have two things that can be used in the kitchen but also make for a pretty feature.

You’d also be surprised on how much you can change your balcony with just a few pot plants.

Also there’s no limits on the number of indoor plants you can have (at least we don’t think so).

2025 Here We Come

We hope this helped you realise how wonderful gardening is as a hobby. Yes, it does take quite a bit of upfront effort, but it is so worth it when you are in an incredible garden that you created yourself.

It is very satisfying work that you get to reap the benefits of for the rest of your life.

If you have any questions about gardening don’t hesitate to reach out to us or come into the store. We are here to make a beautiful garden accessible to everyone.

The more wonderful gardens there are, the more joy there is in the world.

get your own tailored modern garden design:

FIND OUT HOW

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A quaint house with light grey siding, a blue metal roof, and a white picket fence features thoughtful garden design. A child and an adult are standing in the open doorway amidst greenery and trees.

How to Get Your Garden Ready For All Your Summer Events

Written by coldev on 04/12/2024. Posted in Garden Advice, Garden Ideas, Garden Makeovers.

It may not seem like it with Melbourne’s temperamental weather, but summer is looming closer and closer every day. Which means the time of garden parties, BBQ’s, pool parties, days lazing on a lounge chair and all those wonderful things, are almost here.

Now whether you have a true soil and dirt backyard, or just a balcony, we’re going to show you how to jazz up your space.

Jump straight to the sections we’ll be talking about today:

Quick and Easy Fix Up
A Moderate Amount of Effort
A High and Worthwhile Amount of Effort

Because do you really want to be inviting your friends and family over and have a garden that looks scraggly, uncared for and just plain dull? Well, we sure hope not.

Getting the garden ready doesn’t have to be a lengthy, complicated process, but we also understand there are some really keen gardeners out there. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to break it up into the three different types of gardeners and their situation.

This is the profiles we’ve created:

Please let me just do the bare minimum.
I’m happy to put some effort in but I am a busy person.
I want to spend HOURS in the garden, give me all the tips.
Which one are you?

Quick and Easy Fix Up

Don’t particularly care about the garden but still want something nice? Yeah, we get it. Even though it breaks our little heart, we understand not everyone is as into plants as we are.

We’ll forgive you as long as you do something to have a nice garden.

Chances are you probably haven’t weeded in a while (not to call you out or anything), so that’s going to be your first step. Before you start ripping them out by hand, maybe go check out our article on the best equipment to use. Or do as you please, it’s your life after all.

So you’ve (hopefully) removed all the weeds from your garden. Back hurting yet? No?

Okay let’s move onto the next step. Making the garden pretty can also be as simple as just trimming up some overgrown hedges and snipping dead leaves off of plants. So grab your shears and start snip snip snipping.

Okay looking MUCH better. But still a bit dull.

We’re going to give you our top favourite low maintenance plants that are going to make a big impact in the garden.

For groundcovers you choose plants like Blue Convolvulus, Native Violet, White Creeping Thyme or Myoporum ‘Broad Leaf’.

For trees you can plant things like Tuscarora Crepe Myrtle, Silver Birch, Magnolia Little Gem or a Jacaranda Tree.

For hedges you can do English Box, Photinia robusta, Leighton Green Conifer or Prunus Portuguese Laurel.

All of these plants add style and beauty, suiting almost any garden style. Best of all, you barely have to do anything to take care of them.

We do have an entire section on our website dedicated to low maintenance plants, check it out here.

Plus we have a top 10 low maintenance plants article right here.

Also if you have a balcony or courtyard, you’re probably tight on space. Maybe you have a gas cooker out there and some chairs and a table. So what you’re going to want to do is select three big pots in a neutral colour, and then put multiple plants in the one pot. Check out this video for some inspiration.

If making a decision between all these plants feels like too much effort, why not take literally all of the hassle and thought out of it and book a Free Garden Design with us.

Chris runs the Garden Designs and has years of experience and knowledge backing his every decision. He has designed the small low budget gardens, the difficult hot windswept sites, and the massive landscape jobs.

How it works is when you buy your plants from us, whatever deposit you’ve put down goes towards the plants. So this is by the far the most inexpensive and easiest way to get your garden perfect for all those BBQs.

You don’t even have to travel to our nursery, instead doing a consultation online and opting for our Free Delivery. Sounds pretty sweet hey? Book yours here.

A Moderate Amount of Effort

So you do care about your garden and want to spend some time making it nice. We can work with that. If you skipped straight to this point, we’ll just reiterate the importance of weeding and trimming up your plants.

You want to improve what is already there before you start adding things in. Once you’re done there it’s time to start looking at what plants to pick out and pop in.

There are several ways you can do this.

Choosing a big feature and some support acts to accompany it.

Having just one great plant or tree can make a big difference (hint: this is a great budget friendly method as well). So you splurge a bit on the feature plant, and then pick cheaper and smaller plants to put in the rest of the garden.

Some ideas of a great feature are things like a Zuni Crepe Myrtle, Falling Snow Weeping Cherry, Viburnum Snowball Bush, Magnolia Soulangeana, Acer Osakazuki Japanese Maple plus a tonne of other options which you can find the full range here.

What about the support act, the ensemble plants? Well you’re looking at things like Alocasia Elephant Ears, Casuarina Cousin It, Loropetalum Plum Gorgeous, Helichrysum Licorice, Lomandra Tanika and Myoporum Yareena.

Adding some easy colour in through flowering or foliage plants.

Even just a little bit of colour can go a long way, and there is a surplus of colourful plants that are also very easy to maintain. We’re going to rattle off a few of our favourite flowering ones. These are plants like Petunias, Calibrachoas, Impatiens, Mandevilla, Hydrangeas and plenty of others.

Okay now for the ones with colourful foliage (hint: this means you have colour all year). These are plants like Loropetalum, Coprosma, Iresine Bloodleaf, Berberis Rose Glow, Ajuga Burgundy Glow and many others.

If you want more tips about adding colour in the summer, go check out our articles that cover this in more depth:

How to Fill your Summer Garden with Colour
10 Tips for a More Colourful Garden

Choosing plants that have a multi-impact in the garden.

A really nifty tricky for creating a beautiful garden is choosing plants that have several things going for them. What we mean by that is they may have beautiful spring blossoms and interesting autumn foliage, or they have colourful foliage all year and flowers in the summer. Or perhaps lush foliage and interesting bark.

Some plants can be kind of like a one trick pony – they have exceptional spring blossoms and then look drab the rest of the time.

Here are the plants that aren’t like that:
Purple Smoke Bush, Crepe Myrtle, Blueberry Bush, Senkaki Japanese Maple and Weigela Variegated.

A really good tip if you’re busy but do want to put some effort in the garden is to book a Garden Design with us, we believe in a collaborative style where we tailor the design to exactly what you love.

How it works is you bring photos and measurements of your garden, as well as mood boards and garden inspirations, and we bring the expertise to make it happen. Book yours here.

A High and Worthwhile Amount of Effort

You’re our favourite person. Okay we do care about everyone, because we are all about making gardening accessible to every level of effort.

So let’s really get down into the nitty gritty of creating a spectacular garden. We probably don’t need to tell you this but an important first step is still to do some weeding and trimming.

In fact, we think it’s worth it scanning over the other tips in this article as they form a good foundation you can use to leap into the next level of gardening.

Choose your pots to maximise style.

The first way to elevate your garden is the selection of pots. With so many different types of pots available, every choice can have a significant impact. This is particularly true for those with a balcony or courtyard garden.

Chris advises “big pots little gardens” – you can check out the video here and you can see this theory in action. Essentially, instead of over cluttering your space with a tonne of different pots and one plant in each, choose just a few pots and put multiple plants in each.

Also consider how you combine different pots together, mix shapes and sizes and colours for a dynamic and interesting look. For example you could put a round squat pot next to a tall skinny pot and then in the middle type of pot to balance it out.

Explore our full range of pots here:

More plants, less varieties.

Rather than randomly picking an arrangement of 30 different varieties and stuffing them all into one space, take a step back and consider mass planting the same few types for a more cohesive look.

Even if the garden isn’t small, it’s easy for it to look cluttered when there are too many varieties put together. We suggest doing repetitive planting of something that has a bright splash of colour as it helps tie the garden together.

For example something like Sea Lavender is a really great pop of blue/purple that looks amazing scattered here and there in the garden.

Not every plant can be a feature.

It can be so hard trying to figure out what THE feature plant should be in your garden, and it’s tempting to simply choose them all. But the problem with that is you have multiple incredible plants all competing for attention.

It’s very important that you also choose what we like to call ‘the support act plants’, the type of plants that are still beautiful, but much more subdued. Earlier we mentioned a couple great options so be sure to check those out.

We’ll mention a few more here though such as Seaside Daisy, Blue or White Convolvulus sabatius, Silver Dichondra and Catmint.

Okay we have mentioned this before, but we really believe our Garden Design is an incredible service that everyone could benefit from. Whether it’s the small low budget low maintenance gardens, or the grand big designs, it’s never a waste of time to seek help from the experts.

So elevate your garden even further and book here.

Are You Summer Ready?

We hope this article has helped you prepare for all those fun social things we mentioned before. The garden is so much more than just a bunch of plant stuffed together. It’s a place to relax and enjoy the sun, a place to hangout with your friends, a place to play with your kids and pets. To have a beautiful garden is to have a beautiful place to do all of those things and more.