In my last posts about our garden, I shared how we came up with the plan and how our execution process unfolded. Today, I am going to describe how our final outcome came about and the lessons we learned.
Before moving to the final outcome, let me tell you about the lessons we learned during this activity. The first thing we learned is that the prices of garden services often include many hidden fees and costs. The first garden service we contacted did not give us a detailed quotation; they only provided the final amount. However, the second garden service gave us a detailed quotation, and we checked the ongoing market prices. We realized that some of the prices were extremely high. For example, they had quoted a 1.5-foot Christina plant for 600 LKR, whereas we purchased a 1-foot plant for 200 LKR from Mandevilla Shop. They had quoted 14,000 LKR for fertilizer, but we only needed 1,800 LKR for compost. They had estimated 53,280 LKR for gravel, but we purchased gravel for a total of 20,000 LKR. You can see the difference. Perhaps, if we had looked further, we could have found even more affordable options. We are very happy that we did not outsource this to any garden service.
The second lesson we learned is that no matter how much you try to stick to a design or budget, there will always be changes. In terms of design, we made further optimizations during the initial layout implementation, which made the final picture look better. When things are optimized, the cost of the work also increases. Thankfully, we always kept a buffer in our budget to cover such incidents.
Now, I am going to share how our garden transformation happened. It took about three weeks to achieve the final outcome, as we experienced some delays in sourcing gravel.
Let me share some photos.
It was so satisfying to see a change every day. After planting the plants and grass, the rain stopped, so we had to water them twice a day, in the morning and evening. It was a bit of work, as in the evening, the water pressure from the water line was too low. Even though some grass turned brown, once the rain started, things eventually turned greener.
I hope things will become even greener after a few months, and we are planning to plant more flowering plants under the trees beside the garden.
Here's a suggestion for a nice ending paragraph:
Watching our garden transform day by day has been an incredibly rewarding experience. From the initial planning to overcoming unexpected challenges, each step taught us valuable lessons and brought us closer to the garden in our dream. It’s amazing to see how a little effort, creativity, and persistence can completely change a space. Especially I must recall the effort of Mr Lalantha and his supporter, the mason who did an incredible job for us.
Beautiful!