Simple ways to design and plant a garden for less

Whether you are designing a new garden from scratch or improving what you already have, a lot of work is involved, though with careful planning this can cost surprising little. Here's what you need to know about designing and planting an attractive garden for less.

A professional garden designer may charge several hundred dollars for a detailed garden plan, plus more again for buying the plants and carrying out the work, but there are ways of keeping the cost of planning out.

• Design it yourself: Design your own landscaping and planting plan. There are dozens of books and websites that can help you come up with the right solution for you and your garden.
• Hire a student: Contact a local college with a horticultural program or a university with a landscape architect program to see whether you can hire a student to design your garden.
• A garden centre may help: Visit your local garden centre or nursery — staff are often very knowledgeable and many will draw up a plan for free or a modest fee on condition that you buy a minimum dollar value from them

• Plant it yourself: If you have your garden professionally designed, then do the work yourself.
• Buy in bulk: It is far more cost-effective to purchase materials such as gravel in large quantities, and it is cheaper still to buy them when you can from a builders' supplier rather than your local garden centre.
• Landscaping needn’t cost the earth: Paving stones, soil and gravel can be a major expense, so buy larger quantities for the biggest savings and look out for second-hand bargains.

• It is worthwhile trying large chains with garden sections. There is usually a wide variety of plants, flowers and herbs on display.
• The large home-improvement stores also carry an extensive array of gardening tools, equipment and accessories.
• If you do decide to do all of the landscaping yourself, many of the large home-improvement stores rent large one-time-only tools at a reasonable price.

If you are planning to cover large areas of ground, ask neighbours if they plan to landscape their gardens and share the costs.

• That way you can buy larger quantities and share the cost of delivery.

You may be able to pick up paving stones second-hand. Keep an eye out for anyone renovating their garden, and see if they will sell unwanted paving slabs cheap. You may even be lucky enough to find some at the curb.

• A person renovating may set them out for free to avoid the time, effort and fees involved in taking them to the dump.

Create the illusion of size and space in your garden by fixing an old mirror to a wall or fence in a position that gives an attractive reflection, and training plants to conceal the mirror edges.

Start planning your garden today and in no time you'll have a unique oasis that looks great but costs little.