Manicured lawn, or flowering paradise? Water garden, or cactus sanctuary? Stone-covered or treed? These are all things you need to consider. You need to consider a number of factors when deciding what kind of yard you want to have. How much time do you want to spend taking care of it? Are you willing to pay someone else to take care of it, if you don’t have the time?

How much money are you willing to spend? Will it have enough room to accommodate all that food supplied for your garden parties? Will it match the rest of the neighbourhood? Do you even care if it matches the rest of the neighbourhood? It’s all up to you. Of course, there will be some sort of yard, and potentially a garden, in place when you buy the villa, and it might be easier to stick with what’s already there, making some mild modifications.

However, if you’ve got the time, money, and drive, the sky is the limit. And if you’ve got only two of those things, you’re still in pretty good shape. So, as far as I see it, here are some things to consider when thinking about what you’d like to do in the yard of your new villa.

Flower Garden

The most typical, yes, but sometimes also the most lovely. Remember, you’re in Florida, so you’ll be able to get stuff to bloom all year round. You can have winding paths lined with geraniums, lilac bushes, playful patches of wildflowers. It will take upkeep, yes. You’ll need to plant and weed and water and prune, but if you’re the type of person who likes to garden, or just likes to be outside, and wants to present a little bit of your own personality to those walking by, the traditional garden full of colour and butterflies would very likely suit you just fine.

Rock Garden

Although you may immediately think, “What the heck? A garden full or rocks? Who would want that?” Let me tell you, you might want that. Think about it. Once you plan it all out and get the rocks, that’s pretty much you done, my friend. So instead of a lawn you have a pebbly beach situation, and then have a few accent rocks, maybe a few nice tiny trees strewn in there. And that’s you done. Most you’ll ever have to do pretty much ever is maybe weed a bit. No mowing, no watering, basically no upkeep. Sure, it may not be the most extravagant or colourful, but it can look pretty classy, and if you’re a busy bee (or just hate gardening), then this might be the garden for you.

Water Garden

This seems like an immediately attractive option. You can fill the pond (or ponds, depending on how fancy you get) with cool fish, get some beautiful water plants, and enjoy the calming sound of fountains in your new backyard paradise. This all sounds great, especially if you come from a place that gets really cold winters, which can make having a water garden tough. But keep in mind that these kinds of gardens require a lot of upkeep; you have to keep the water moving so that it doesn’t become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other nasties, you have to maintain the fountain(s), you have to make sure the fish have enough to eat, you (or someone) have (or has) to occasionally get in there and clean the algae off the rocks. Also, it takes forever to plan and set up. If you’ve got the resources, though (or someone to do all that stuff for you), then it sounds like a plan to me.