I'm of two minds about gardening makeover programmes on television. On the one hand, I'm irritated by the images of perfect gardens being created in hours, on a shoestring, by bands of cheery professionals. Real garden-making is not that fast or cheap, or trouble-free - even on the small terrains that are the speciality of these programmes - and it is certainly not that good-tempered. On the other hand, I welcome the flood of ideas that flows from the screen. The boxy urban garden with its orange-brown shed and rectangular rug of lawn is becoming a thing of the past. It has been replaced by elegant little courtyards, miniature jungles, pint-sized vegetable potagers, cool geometric outdoor rooms, and nautical decking.
But you can't have everything you see on telly. Not all garden-types suit all locations, soil conditions, or indeed, people (that's another bugbear: new garden-makers have their expectations cruelly raised when they watch stage-set gardens created, with no mention of ongoing maintenance or plantcare). Let's not be negative, though. If you're looking through the window at a glaringly-blank canvas outside a new estate house, you want to know what you can do, instead of what you can't.
First, make two lists: one of what you want from your garden, another of what you have to work with. Your wish-list will include some of the following: a paved sitting or dining area, barbecue, lawn, flower beds, a tree or two, some shrubs, vegetable patch, fruit trees and bushes, compost heap, play area, pond or water feature, garden shed, greenhouse, a secluded bench. The catalogue is likely to be rather long, as fantasy gets the upper hand, so it might help to award stars to the more important items (and if you haven't already, add a clothes-line and dustbin parking zone to a register of necessities).
The second list will bring you back to earth swiftly. Itemise what you have to work with: that is, your garden's dimensions and conditions (sunny or shady, exposed or sheltered, moist or dry - or a bit of everything), its assets (a view of a mountain, perhaps), its disadvantages (entirely overlooked by neighbours or frowned upon by an ugly building?). Include in this list the people and pets who will be using the garden, and the time - realistically - that you'll be happy to spend working on it.
Certain items on your wish-list will be cancelled out by your have-list, for example, if your garden is shady, that rules out fruit and veg, (except for a Morello cherry, parsley and mint); if you have small children then you won't have a pond (but a sand-pit can be transformed into one when they are older); and if time is limited, you can forget the greenhouse. Other items on your lists will match each other - for instance, the tree you long for may nicely fill the gap where that eyesore is, and if your garden is sunny, you can have a thriving vegetable patch.
When it comes to actually designing the garden, your best bet is to invest in a good book. It doesn't have to be an expensive, glossy affair: one of the better guides for little plots is the Royal Horticultural Society's Small Gardens (£4.99 in UK) which is full of good ideas and clever tricks. In the meantime, make a sketch of the space, marking in everything you've chosen to keep or cannot get rid of (such as manhole covers and oil tank). Make lots of photocopies so that you can superimpose drawings of possible plans as they occur to you.
When you've done a bit of research (magazines, other people's gardens and television are valuable sources of inspiration, along with design books) you should have formed an idea of what style of garden you fancy. It might be cool and modern, or cottagey and relaxed, or dignified and formal. Keep sight of the amount of time you want to spend working in it, and adjust your concept accordingly. Lack of time, however, need not rule out certain supposedly labour-intensive things. Vegetables can be contained in small raised beds arranged in a pleasing pattern; they are easy to tackle and look neat, even when empty or slightly weedy. Lawns can be bordered with brick or paving set at ground level, so that you can mow right over the margin and don't need to wrestle with an edging shears to keep it from getting raggedy.
When you've decided on your final design, mark it out on the ground with pale sand, with pegs and string, or with spray paint (which doesn't work on bare soil). Live with it for a week or so to see if there's enough room to manoeuvre, and to make sure that you're not allotting your prime growing areas to garden shed, clothes dryer or patio.
If funds allow, do all the hard landscaping (paving, retaining walls and so on) in one go at the beginning: if carried out later, building work may mess up your cherished lawn or carefully-planted beds.
But what about those beds and their plants? Although I've done it many times myself, please don't go out and buy a trolley-load of different things, just because you like the look of them. That way lies the scrappy garden full of unsuitable specimens. At the risk of sounding like an ad for the Royal Horticultural Society, I'd advise you to get a copy of the RHS Good Plant Guide (£9.99 in UK), a little manual describing 2000 garden-worthy plants. Most helpful are the lists of candidates for special purposes, such as plants for warm walls, architectural plants and trees for small gardens. But most importantly, I suggest that you take time while making your special outdoor room and choosing its plants. Gardens are not built in a day, no matter what you see on television.
Jane Powers can be contacted at: jpowers@irish-times.ie