How to Elevate Your Landscaping with High-Quality Plants and Personalized Advice
Want to know how to elevate your landscaping this season? Whether you're doing a small refresh or a full transformation, choosing high-quality plants and getting expert guidance can make all the difference and beautiful landscaping can fit any budget. Click on the following sections to discover how to do it, no matter what budget you have.
Gauld Nurseries is a trusted local source for plants, landscaping materials, and personalized gardening advice in the Niagara Region. Visit us today to get started.
Elevate Your Landscaping
1. Elevate Your Landscaping on a Budget
You can use mulch to tidy up your existing beds and give them a fresh and more finished look.
You don’t need a large budget to make a big impact in your garden. Even doing small updates each year can elevate the look and feel of your yard. Here are some affordable ways to improve your outdoor space:
Focus on One Area
Start with one area of your year, such as the front entrance or an empty garden bed. Just making one change can help you keep your costs low while making an improvement that you and your neighbours will notice.
Apply Mulch
Applying mulch is a great way to bring new life to your garden beds. You can use mulch or decorative gravel to tidy up your existing beds and give them a fresh and more finished look. Mulch also has the added benefit of helping to retain moisture, so you won't have to water as often, and it will keep those unwanted weeds in check. After all, you don't want to be spending your summer weeding.
Focus on Affordable, High-Impact Plants
Choose perennials like coneflowers, daylilies, and hostas. These plants come up each year and they add reliable colour and texture to your landscape. In addition, you can separate most perennials every few years, which means you'll have free plants that you can move to other areas of your garden.
Perennials may cost a bit more than annuals, but once you have them, they keep producing more plants so they are actually a better investment. Choose a variety of perennials that bloom at various times throughout the season so you will have different blooms from spring and into fall.
Choose Native Shrubs
Dogwood is a native plant that is well-adapted to southern Ontario. - Image by Etienne GONTIER from Pixabay
Native shrubs like Dogwood, Serviceberry, or Elderberry are well-adapted to southern Ontario and often require less maintenance. These shrubs are also a safe investment as they are more likely to thrive in your garden because they are native to the area so they are suited to its conditions.
Get Some Annuals
If you are looking for some quick colour for your garden that isn't going to break the bank, then annuals are a good option. Flowering annuals like petunias, marigolds, or impatiens are low-cost and perfect for adding instant seasonal colour.
Gauld Nurseries offers affordable starter sizes of many plants, so you can buy for less.
Group Your Plants
Instead of just planting one plant by itself, plant groups of plants together to create a better visual impact. Planting in odd-numbered groupings like in groups of threes or fives, will give your space a more natural look to really elevate your garden.
Put taller plants at the back, medium ones in the middle and low-growing ones in the front. Make sure that you mix your colours up as well. Here are some colours that go well together:
Purple and yellow
Red and white
Orange and blue
You can also choose plants that have different colours and textures of their leaves to add more visual appeal.
Get Personalized Advice from Gauld’s Experts
Not sure what plants will thrive in your yard? Bring photos or describe your space to the team at Gauld’s. They will recommend budget-friendly plants based on your particular space.
2. Mid-Range Landscaping Upgrades
Garden edging can really help you define your flower beds and give your landscaping a more finished look.
If you have a slightly larger budget and are ready to invest a little more to elevate your landscaping, here are some great tips.
Garden Edging
Adding some garden edging like stone, brick, metal, or composite can really help you define your flower beds and give your landscaping a more finished look. Edging also has the added benefits of keeping your mulch in place and giving a tidy, professional finish to your space.
Add Raised Garden Beds
Raised garden beds have been becoming more popular in recent years for many great reasons. They add height and structure to your yard, improve drainage, and can be easier to maintain. They are also an easier way to start a new garden bed, as you don't have to do the backbreaking work of digging out and preparing a new site.
Add Mulch
Invest in some high-quality mulch such as premium bark or cedar mulch. Mulch not only improves the aesthetics of your garden, but it also retains moisture and prevents weeds.
Incorporate Paths
Adding gravel or natural stone paths will not only make your yard more functional, but they will also enhance its design.
Paths are perfect for connecting garden zones and giving you easier access to areas you need to weed or water.
Concrete or natural stone pavers are perfect for patios, walkways, or stepping stone paths.
These features are great for defining your outdoor spaces.
Use Decorative Stone & Planters
Decorative stone like river rock, lava rock, crushed granite, or natural stone boulders can be used in your garden beds, walkways, or around water features for a clean, modern look. They also add structure and texture to elevate your landscaping.
Large outdoor planters allow you to introduce focal points with seasonal plants, ornamental grasses, or dwarf shrubs. You can choose from a wide selection of planters in many different shapes, sizes, and colours to add even more visual appeal.
Gauld Nurseries offers a variety of natural stone and landscaping products that blend beautifully with your plant choices.
Create a Cohesive, Designer Look with Expert Help
Mid-range upgrades can greatly benefit from some expert guidance. This is where Gauld’s team can really elevate your design. Staff can help you choose plants and materials that complement one another in both style and function. For example, planting sun-loving plants near heat-absorbing stone paths.
Ask for an on-site consultation to help map out your yard’s layout, ensuring flow, balance, and plant placement that makes sense for the space. Their team can also provide advice on phasing your project, helping you prioritize upgrades that make the biggest impact first.
3. Premium Landscaping: Full Service Design & Installation
Full-service landscape design and installation is ideal for homeowners looking to create a cohesive, show-stopping outdoor space.
Let the experts take your landscape to the next level. Gauld Nurseries offers full-service landscape design and installation, ideal for homeowners looking to create a cohesive, show-stopping outdoor space. From concept to completion, their team handles everything, so there is no guesswork on your part and no do-it-yourself stress.
This is a great option if you are building a new home, doing major outdoor renovations, or upgrading your outdated landscaping.
Get a Tailored Design That Reflects Your Style
It is important to work with experienced designers, like the professionals at Gauld, who will listen to your goals, preferences, and vision. You'll want to get a customized plan that takes into account layout, function (e.g. entertaining, privacy), and your own personal aesthetic.
Design plans can include plant beds, walkways, stone features, privacy screens, and more. All of these aspects should be chosen to complement your home’s architecture and surrounding space.
Right Plant, Right Place, Every Time
Paying the extra to elevate your landscape will be well worth it. You'll benefit from professional plant selection that matches your specific site conditions. These include how much sunlight you get, the type of soil you have, your wind exposure, and the moisture levels of your yard.
Designers will recommend trees, shrubs, and perennials that offer year-round visual interest, low maintenance, or eco-friendly benefits such as incorporating native species, companion plants, or pollinator plants. You’ll avoid mismatched plantings or costly replacements by getting it right from the start.
Professional Installation You Can Trust
Proper installation ensures healthy plant growth and long-term success.
Trained installers ensure everything is planted and placed correctly. They know how deep to plant and how far to space your plants. They will also give you the proper drainage you need for your plants to survive and shape your beds beautifully. Proper installation ensures healthy plant growth and long-term success. Site preparation, soil improvement, and cleanup are also included for a hassle-free experience.
Long-Term Planning and Value
Gauld’s team considers how your landscape will evolve over time, helping you choose plants that fill in gradually and maintain balance as they mature. They can phase in elements over multiple seasons if desired. This is perfect for larger projects. Full-service design also increases your home’s curb appeal and long-term property value.
Local Knowledge = Smarter Landscaping
Gauld’s designs are based on decades of experience in the Niagara region. They know what thrives in the local climate. They account for regional challenges like clay soils, extreme temperature swings, or drainage issues. Personalized advice ensures your final design is not only beautiful but also sustainable and practical for your space.
4. Why Personalized Advice Makes a Difference
Whether you buy a few perennials or invest in full-service landscaping, Gauld treats every job with respect.
Personalized advice is not just about buying plants, it's designing a landscape that will thrive. Gauld's team will learn about your space, goals, and budget before recommending solutions. They help avoid common garden centre misunderstandings that can cost you, like the following:
Choosing plants that won't survive in your sun or shade
Overplanting beds or improper spacing
Purchasing high-maintenance plants without the long-term work involved
You'll take home plants that are a good match for your soil, sunlight, watering routine, and style of design, so that your money isn't spent on trial and error.
The Same Great Service No Matter Your Spend
Whether you buy a few perennials or invest in full-service landscaping, Gauld's crew treats every job with respect. No pressure, no upselling, just honest, seasoned guidance to achieve the best result from your budget.
Their team offers creative ideas to stretch your dollar, such as:
Picking younger plants to fill in later
Blending quick growers with focal points to meet the effect with expense
Phasing out your plan seasonally to staggered costs
In-Store Help After the Sale
Customers appreciate spot-planning help. You can bring a photograph or sketch of your yard, and staff can recommend what to plant where. Our team will also give seasonal advice on how to plan the timing of your planting and what to plant during different times of the year.
You will also get instructions on how to care for it (watering, pruning, fertilizing, winterizing), so your new landscape keeps thriving and looking wonderful well after it goes into the ground.
Customers stop by lots of times throughout the year to ask or make additions to their plan. Gauld is a partner, not a salesperson.
Get Growing with How to Gardenz
Image by Sue Rickhuss from Pixabay
Connect with our gardening experts at HowToGardenz! We provide tips, tools, and reviews to help you develop your green thumb while embracing sustainable and low-maintenance gardening practices. Learn how to grow a thriving garden that’s both eco-friendly and easy to care for!
Have gardening expertise to share? Or a thriving greenhouse to showcase? Join HowToGardenz! List your products or services and connect with other plant enthusiasts who are passionate about creating sustainable, beautiful gardens. Let's spread the joy of growing together, with less effort and more impact!