Backyard ideas on a budget often don’t take luxury into account, but these top tips will give your garden the opulence you desire, without the cost!
Landscape design and styling is often considered to be an expensive venture. Buying lots of plants, finding aesthetic decor and spending extensive amounts of time and energy on your backyard isn’t in the cards for most households.
When it comes to curating garden and landscape ideas that create a lasting impression, it needs to be as thoughtful as when you consider indoor styling.
While putting in effort is definitely a given, there are ways to skirt around extreme costs and expensive purchases, and still have a beautiful outdoor space.
We’ve enlisted the help of Cindy from Perth Landscaping Experts to give us expert advice in creating a luxurious outdoor look.
Let’s take a look at the best ways to create a backyard on a budget, that still has that luxe feel.
5 ways to make a backyard look expensive
1. Stay minimal with a focal point
Having a focal point or stand out feature in your backyard like a fire pit will draw the eye.
As Cindy explains, “One popular way to make your landscape look ‘high class’ is going for the clean, minimal look with a single impressive feature, such as a statue, water feature or fire pit area, and keeping the rest simple but immaculately maintained with clean lines.”
A focal point doesn’t have to be functional in any sense, but instead works as a completely aesthetic feature.
2. Pick plants for long-term growth
Cindy reveals that a cost-effective way to purchase plants is just by having a little patience.
“Using tube stock/seedlings is always much cheaper than going straight for mature plants and you get to be part of watching them grow and training them to grow to suit your space.”
She also recommends using groundcovers to ‘fill in the gaps’ between a few larger plants to save initial costs but still have lush green garden beds, such as native violet or dichondra.
Cindy explains that you can also use ground covers as an alternative to traditional turf which will require less ongoing maintenance, which means less ongoing costs for maintenance as well.
3. Have a landscaping vision
The planning of your garden is imperative, and Cindy says that this is where this will ‘save you money in the long run’.
“For example, by making sure you don’t buy more plants then you need. You want to have a very clear idea of what the theme and finished ‘style’ you want so you can make your choices to suit.
Planning and having a clear colour scheme and style also stops excessive or impulse purchases if you know exactly what you want and what will fit in your space and nothing more.”
It’s important to take into account all of the outdoor spaces you need to cater for, including pathways, garden beds, entertaining areas, exterior walls and wide open spaces.
4. Keep it simple with material choice
Materials for edging, outdoor furniture and decor should be kept simple and to the theme you have picked out.
Cindy suggests two different options for a luxe look:
“White is a very popular choice with accents of gold or bronze – and the contrast they give against the green of your natural elements give a very luxe look.
The rust, red and wood colours of a more native/natural theme with accents of black metal can also give a very professional and grand feel – it depends on the theme you are after.”
She does recommend to stick to a simple colour palette, even when choosing plants and shrubbery.
5. In the end, native is all you need
Overall, using plants that are endemic to your location, and that attract beautiful pollinators is always the best option.
As Cindy explains, using native plants is always going to be cost effective because “they will require less ongoing maintenance, water and other resources to grow strong and healthy.”
When picking out colours, your theme and your materials, having a more native approach to your choices means that your purchases will end up being from local sources, and therefore more affordable.
And the added bonus? Native plants means a wealth of biodiversity in your garden, and creating spaces for bees, butterflies and bugs is as priceless as you can get.
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