5 expensive garden 'upgrades' you're going to regret, according to a garden designer

Designing a garden should be a joy. Namely, it should be a gradual and slow process and certainly not an overnight overhaul. Throwing money at a garden does not make a masterpiece. It is about skill, patience, care, and process.

Just as there are high-cost elements to interior design that end up being a big design mishap, there are expensive garden design choices and so-called 'upgrades' that turn out to be landscaping mistakes that waste an awful lot of cash.

Here are five expensive backyard upgrades you might come to regret in the future.

1. Overdoing the decking

When I enter a garden covered in large areas of decking, I can't help but sigh. What an expensive waste of space.

Decking in the garden was first really bought into in the 1960s, and whilst of course, several tasteful outdoor deck ideas are both practical and pretty, it has been a trend that has been all too heartily embraced by garden owners.

There are some chic and bijou small deck ideas, but since decking needs annual upkeep, cleaning, stripping, and repainting, they are costly to keep in sound condition. Of course, there are the composite plastic alternatives, but the less said about them, the better.

Decking costs a lot of money, and it seeks to rationalise a wild, naturalistic space into a contained, neat, and sanitized space. Too many times I have heard homeowners moan that this is their top garden regret.

2. Planting trees that are just too big

This is one of those garden design pet peeves of mine. Recently, at my grandmother's home, I have been watching her neighbor's garden, which is undergoing a garden design re-vamp.

The designer has, rather mindlessly, planted a young tree, which will soon grow to be a very big tree, right up against the fence, the other side of which is another tree. A few feet above this newly planted tree is a large overhead electrical wire. You can see where this is going. Toward disaster.

What a waste of money. Remember when you plant trees to consider their mature height and spread, and keep in mind the room their roots need.

Fences, walls, wires, and buildings, will fall and tumble when a tree grows into them, and it will often result in the tree coming straight out.

3. Artificial grass

I won't rhapsodize about my personal loathing of artificial grass, and the environmental void that it creates, but I will issue a word of warning if you are thinking of implementing a plastic lawn. It is a very costly mistake to make, if you come to regret your decision.

In 2018, the RHS announced it would be banning the sale of artificial grass at its shows, including the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. In 2021 it banned the use of artificial grass from any of its show gardens. There is of course an ecological motive to this, as we hurtle into a climate crisis, plastic grass seems wildly wrong in every way, but also an aesthetic one, as it can never look quite as lovely as real, old fashioned grass.

Artificial lawns are expensive, and most gardeners come to regret installing it. If you think that the cost of watering, feeding, re-turfing a real alive lawn makes it more costly than a fake lawn, you may be right that in the very long term, real lawns come at a higher cost.

But if you are starting out on a big garden overhaul, and thinking that fake grass will be easier and more manageable, I urge you to try real, living, photosynthesising grass, and I am willing to hedge a bet, you won't regret it.

4. Investing in a planting scheme without checking the lay of the land first

When you're plotting your garden planting, whether that be a naturalistic planting scheme, a cottage garden scheme, a minimalist garden scheme, or a hybrid of any planting scheme, get to know your soil first.

Spending lots of money on plants without properly analysing things such as your soil type, soil pH, disease risk, local site conditions, drainage, seasonal changes, and aspect means your beautiful plants could quite easily totally fail.

I recently visited a friend's garden where he'd planted copious swathes of Russian sage against a north-facing wall, drenched in deep shade and sat in poor-draining, waterlogged soil.

The only slightly sunny patch of the garden was filled with the beautiful, though thoroughly malnourished leaves of Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans. The slip-up was obvious, and all of these plants, expensive as I'm sure they were to buy, are likely going to fail.

Instead, embrace plants and materials that will adapt to evolving conditions and contribute to the garden's long-term health. Position plants where they will thrive, though it seems obvious, don't try to force a plant to thrive where it doesn't want to be. A plant you may adore may not work in your garden.

Another friend of mine spent a small fortune on close to a truckload of peony plants to fill three-quarters of her garden, since they are her favorite flower, only to find that they only flower for a handful of days out of the year. A very expensive way to learn that patience is, in fact, a virtue.

5. An inbuilt fire pit area

I, like most people, simply adore an outdoor fire pit area. The essentials of a good fire pit design are straightforward: ensure it's safe, easy to use, and in a convenient place where you will actually use it.

But hold back on investing vast sums of money into a very swanky in-built raised or sunken firepit. I also love a beautifully designed outdoor fireplace, but exercise the same level of restraint and patience before hurtling into the idea.

Firstly, consider if it is a good use of space, and if it is likely to be used regularly enough for it to make sense for you and your family. Do you regularly hold outdoor evening parties and summer garden parties? Then a fire pit makes total sense. I would be lost without one.

But many beautiful standalone fire pits can be brought out when you want them, and put away when you don't. An in-built garden fire pit with all the mod cons, special switches, gadgets, and modes may come at a high cost and be used very rarely. It is worth facing the uncomfortable question: is this a thing I will actually love, or merely a status symbol?

Invest a much more modest sum into a standalone firepit first, and test it for a while, moving it around to find out if you have definitely found the right spot. You will likely find that the desire for an in-built alternative melts away.

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Of course, all of this comes with one major caveat: garden ideas are distinctly personal, and you must be guided by your own likes and dislikes. That said, if there is one takeaway from this, it should be this: not all expensive garden upgrades are upgrades at all. A truly beautiful garden is the result of love and nurturing, and a whole lot of patience.