Watching old series of gardener's world (or waiting for this year's) could be a good start for ideas and looking at what plants you like or how to care for them.
I'm currently designing my garden, although really working with what I've got. I've drawn a quick rough, almost "stickman" idea of where I'm going to put things, but had an idea of taking a screenshot of my garden from Google earth (doesn't matter that it's an old image) and then drawing over it with my new sketch, before possibly painting it up digitally to gethe the professional effect and as a keepsake. I kinda want to see if it's something I could do, as I have a background in design. You obviously don't have to go that far, but since ply drawing/tracing over your plot from Google maps would give you a good idea to start with, and makes it easier to keep everything actually to scale. From the hat here you can think about what you like and research into garden design. If you decide to employ a professional, sketches are always good to show them what you would like.
If you can afford it, then I would recommend getting a garden designer. They will stick to your budget, work with all your ideas and give you a plan to work with. It can be a scaled plan or a sketch - whatever your budget runs to. It can be as detailed as you like, or not like. Depends what kind of detail you want/need. Same with plants - either a planting plan detailing the number and name of each plant or just 'a cottage border' type label on the plan/sketch. It will be useful to give you the 'big picture' which you can work to over the years. And useful info like where to site the shed and how far from the fence should it be, where to put a seating area etc etc. And give you ideas that you may not have thought of.
As to finding one, look in yellow pages, on the net, local garden centres etc.
My own garden is now 15 years old and getting a bit jaded I think. I am thinking of getting a garden designer to come in next month and give me some ideas to jazz up my borders and get them kicked into better shape. That's if I don't do it myself in the next few weeks, on paper at least. Problem is here that I do need to get my hands on some decent sized plants and there are few garden centres around so choice is limited.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
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Watching old series of gardener's world (or waiting for this year's) could be a good start for ideas and looking at what plants you like or how to care for them.
I'm currently designing my garden, although really working with what I've got. I've drawn a quick rough, almost "stickman" idea of where I'm going to put things, but had an idea of taking a screenshot of my garden from Google earth (doesn't matter that it's an old image) and then drawing over it with my new sketch, before possibly painting it up digitally to gethe the professional effect and as a keepsake. I kinda want to see if it's something I could do, as I have a background in design. You obviously don't have to go that far, but since ply drawing/tracing over your plot from Google maps would give you a good idea to start with, and makes it easier to keep everything actually to scale. From the hat here you can think about what you like and research into garden design. If you decide to employ a professional, sketches are always good to show them what you would like.
If you can afford it, then I would recommend getting a garden designer. They will stick to your budget, work with all your ideas and give you a plan to work with. It can be a scaled plan or a sketch - whatever your budget runs to. It can be as detailed as you like, or not like. Depends what kind of detail you want/need. Same with plants - either a planting plan detailing the number and name of each plant or just 'a cottage border' type label on the plan/sketch. It will be useful to give you the 'big picture' which you can work to over the years. And useful info like where to site the shed and how far from the fence should it be, where to put a seating area etc etc. And give you ideas that you may not have thought of.
As to finding one, look in yellow pages, on the net, local garden centres etc.
My own garden is now 15 years old and getting a bit jaded I think. I am thinking of getting a garden designer to come in next month and give me some ideas to jazz up my borders and get them kicked into better shape. That's if I don't do it myself in the next few weeks, on paper at least. Problem is here that I do need to get my hands on some decent sized plants and there are few garden centres around so choice is limited.