My husband and myself have just spent the last two to three months renovating our rather tired looking front garden. It was all trees, bushes, herbes that were taking over along with the weeds. Firstly we hired a skip for a couple of days, and then we dug up all the gravel, trees, bushes etc. After the skip had gone, we started to dig the garden; this was no easy exercise, as it is 110 feet in area.

We did around the border of the garden, into which we have planted privet hedging. We then dug the rest and sowed grass seed, which has just started to grow. I also renovated the driveway, by recycling some slabs we had left over from when the patio was built in the back garden. It wasn't as expensive doing it ourselves, all in all it cost us about $500, we did get a quote from a gardener and that would have cost us nearly $2000. The reason it took so long was the weather, as we were getting a lot of wind and rain, so we had to do it as and when Mother Nature allowed. It was back breaking work but well worth it, we can now sit back and pat ourselves on the back and say. We did that. Even the neighbors are saying how much nicer it looks.

Gardening programes on TV can give you some useful tips.

Tubs and container gardens as well as window boxes and hanging baskets, are great if you have a small garden or an apartment. These make nice features outside front doors, even on patios. Obelisks are great for climbing plants such as Clematis and climbing roses, they are metal framed, as the plant starts to grow, intertwine it between the frames, it may take a few years but the overall effect is staggering, as the plant has covered the obelisk and looks as though it's grown that way naturally.

Decking can be bought in easy self assembly packs, you can buy slabs for patios in different shapes and sizes, maybe you fancy a hexagonal one, rather than a square one, you can buy the packs complete with corner pieces, so no hassle trying to cut slabs yourself without breaking them. Or maybe you fancy building your own barbecue, these can also be bought ready to assemble.