How to Plan Your Ideal Garden
Start with your Ideal Garden Brief
A well-designed garden can be a versatile place – a sanctuary, playground, dining room and party venue all rolled into one. However, perfection takes a little planning.
Start by creating a mood board. Trawl the web and lifestyle magazines for gardens and products that inspire you. Select images that suit your taste, wants and needs for your garden. Be realistic. Don’t aspire to replicate a large country estate if you have a small urban courtyard. Pinterest is a great tool for scrapbooking, but old-school magazine cut-outs can also be a satisfying way to create a useful mood board to refine your preferences.
Consider Your Aspect
The direction your garden is facing is known as the aspect, and this is key when deciding what to include in the space. No matter how much you might want a Mediterranean style garden, if your space is north facing it is unlikely to get enough direct light for many sun-loving plants to thrive.
Typically, in east facing gardens the sun travel down the left-hand boundary from the house to the bottom, whilst in west facing gardens it moves from the rear towards the house. North facing gardens will get sunshine across the bottom of the space, whilst south facing gardens are in full sun throughout the day. Your aspect will determine the best location for patios and seating areas, as well as what planting style you choose to follow.
What’s your lifestyle?
Gardens are a great place for your imagination to run wild. They can be fantastical and wacky, elegant and chic. However, they do need to fit in with your lifestyle. How many hours a week can you commit to looking after your garden? If you spend a lot of time away or working late, a low maintenance garden might be the best choice. In this case you may want to consider ditching the traditional lawn in favour of easy-care planting. For those that do a lot of entertaining, a garden that is an extension of the house, with ample seating and dining areas, will be put to good use. A large family with dogs will often find a large lawn and robust planting essential.
Choose your materials well
When you are selecting materials for your garden, there are more than mere aesthetics to consider. Does the material work practically for its intended use? For example, decking in a shaded area, such as under a tree, may not dry out and will become slippery and dilapidated over time.
Do some research and take advice from suppliers. Does it require lots of maintenance? Is it easy to install or does it need professional skills? The more you understand the materials, the better chance you have of creating a garden that will stand the test of time.
Once you have decided what materials will best suit your space, look at ways to combine them for maximum visual effect. Mix up textures and finishes – shiny next to matte, rough next to smooth – and use the same materials in different places throughout the space to create a sense of continuity. Pick materials that will provide year-round colour and interest, such as Corten steel or Perspex sheets. Try not to throw everything you find into your design though or it may become too busy.
A well-rounded planting scheme
It is an easy temptation when working on your garden to visit a local nursery and buy whatever you like the look of. However, unless you are going for an informal cottage style theme, this approach can make your planting beds look quite chaotic. Select a single colour scheme for flowering plants and think about what that plant will look like when not in flower. For me, if the foliage looks good, everything else is a bonus. Go for a variety of leaf shape and colours to avoid a monotonous blob of green. Mix up larger showstopping shrubs and architectural plants with groups of perennials (in threes and fives). Make sure you leave space for plants to spread and thrive, so check the label for preferred location and maximum size.
