This is a great time of the year to look closely at your garden and reevaluate it. The magic of the garden's springtime lushness and beauty is starting to fade as we enter into our dry summer season. You may think about your relationship with your garden, and find yourself asking if a landscaping redesign is in order.

Gardens are always transforming and evolving. Recognizing this is essential in all garden design and maintenance. Proper garden maintenance includes constantly redesigning the landscape. This changing of the garden is often quite simple and done instinctively. Every time you buy a new flowering six-pack or prune a tree, you are redesigning your garden. However, there is also a more in-depth planned redesign you can undertake, and a change in the seasons is an ideal time to make a landscaping change.

Unless you intend to put in a whole new landscape, it is best to focus on one area at a time as you do the redesign work. A good place to start is where you hang out to relax in your garden, whether it be a rock bench, a hammock, a hot tub, a pool or an outdoor kitchen area. Plant some colorful summer flowering annuals and perennials. Then you may focus on some wishful concepts, such as creating an herb garden, a butterfly garden, a native plant garden or a fruit and vegetable garden.

The most important aspect of recreating your landscape is to realize how much time you actually have to spend maintaining your garden. Don't bite off more than you can chew!

As you plan the changes, consider which plants in the area, if any, you want to keep. These anchor plants will be key in your redesign as you choose color combinations and foliage textures. Try to create balance and harmony, or awe and drama, whichever you choose. Then when you have successfully transformed that part of your garden into a landscape masterpiece, you can ask yourself again "Now which area in my yard is most disturbing?"

This approach of transforming your garden one area at a time is a very easy method. It goes with the philosophy of not taking on more than you can handle. In several years you will have effectively metamorphosized your garden.