Stepping into a professionally designed garden is like putting on a hand-tailored suit – the proportions, quality materials and the way it’s put together makes you feel happy, relaxed and comfortable.
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But how do you achieve a designer look without spending a fortune? We asked four award-winning designers and gardeners for their top tricks on how to solve common garden design problems and achieve a beautiful finish. This is what you’re doing wrong, and how to fix it, fast.
Add more than evergreens
“While evergreens can offer a long period of interest, they can be very static and you may soon become bored of looking at the same thing, month after month,” says award-winning designer Colm Joseph. “Meanwhile, deciduous plants that ebb and flow with the seasons can help you feel connected with the rhythms of nature. The trick is to choose those that change as the weeks pass, but still offer a strong structural presence over a long period.”
When selecting trees, look for those with two seasons of interest, he says, such as crab apples (Malus), Amelanchier lamarckii and Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica), with its crimson spring flowers and yellow, red and purple autumn foliage. “Mix these with shrubs and perennials, such as repeat-flowering roses, Echinacea, Phlomis and ornamental grasses. And don’t forget spring bulbs for early interest.”
Ditch the skinny beds
Designer Lucy Conochie, who has won awards for her small garden designs, says many domestic gardens tend to be longer than they are wide, “and a common design error is to create narrow beds around the boundaries to keep the planting ‘out of the way’ and maximize the useable space. However, this visually elongates the garden even further, while confining planting to often challenging dry and shady conditions at the base of a fence, limiting your options.
“Instead, consider deeper borders that cut across the width of the garden, and include a range of plants for structure and seasonal interest. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it will make your garden look bigger and offer you a much larger palette of plants to choose from.”
Move your seating area
Most people build a patio directly outside the house, but this may not be the best option, says award-winning designer and author of How to design a garden, Pollyanna Wilkinson. “This is convenient, of course, but if you have a shady north-facing terrace it can have pros and cons. For example, it will offer cool shade from hot midday sun in summer, but may be a bit gloomy at other times, and it could also be cold and unwelcoming during the cooler seasons,” she explains.
“Try making other seating areas elsewhere, popping a bench or casual seats on pavers or gravel in a west-facing spot to enjoy a drink in the cooler evening sun, or in an east-facing site for morning coffee. Multiple seating places, even in small gardens, also encourages use of the whole space and allows you to view it from different angles.”
Colm Joseph agrees. “While most of us have a patio close to the house, think about how it looks from inside, which is how it will be viewed for many months of the year,” advises Colm Joseph. “Avoid filling it with bulky furniture that blocks the view of the garden, and try bringing planting beds up to the house, near the windows and doors.” An easy way to do this is to take up some paving and install a raised bed or two. “I also push seating areas out into the garden, masking the furniture with planting when seen from inside.”
Banish bare fences
Boundaries define a garden’s dimensions, which is why a space can look smaller when you can see them all at a glance. A good solution is to cover bare fences and walls with leafy plants that blur the boundary lines and create the illusion that the garden continues beyond the borders.
Millie Souter, Head Gardener of The Plant Library at The Serge Hill Project in Hertfordshire, suggests training climbers on horizontal wires fixed to a fence or wall. “My favourites include the sausage vine (Holboellia coriacea), with its dark green leaves and clusters of pale purple and greenish flowers, followed by eye-catching sausage-shaped greenish-purple fruits, and Clematis ‘Bill MacKenzie’, a beautiful tangutica type that’s covered with bell-shaped yellow flowers from late summer to autumn, followed by fluffy seedheads. Or in a shady, sheltered garden, try the evergreen, self-clinging Hydrangea seemannii, which produces domed clusters of white summer flowers.
“Wall shrubs will help to cover a boundary, too. Good options are the evergreen Ceanothus ‘Concha’, with its blue spring flowers, and the silk tassel bush (Garrya elliptica), which offers a combination of dark green leaves and long, grey-green catkins in winter.”
Reduce the hard paving
“Many people pave over their garden, thinking that it will make it low maintenance. While this is true to an extent, it can also make the space feel cold, sterile and souless,” says Colm Joseph. Paving can also reflect more sun into the garden, making it unbearably hot in summer.
“A long-term solution is to create a few smaller seating areas throughout the garden, rather than a single large one, but a quick fix for an existing patio is to lift some of the paving and introduce planting such as creeping thyme, ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, or even a small tree such as an acer, to break up the hard expanse.”
Smarter ways to screen
“Most of us appreciate some privacy in our back gardens, and often the solution is to install a tall wall, fence or hedge,” says Lucy Conochie. “These may help, but they can also be overbearing and make you feel hemmed in, especially in a small garden. To avoid this problem, think about how much privacy you really require, the best type of screening for the site, and where in the garden you need it.
Prioritise spaces you spend time in, rather than those you pass through, which could have lower boundaries, and locate screening within the garden, rather than restricting it to the edges. For example, privacy is needed most when you are sitting down, and a small tree strategically placed close to a seating or dining area that masks neighbouring windows will be more effective, more quickly, than the same tree planted on the boundary.”
Blooms not bare soil
The phrase ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ explains why any bare soil in the garden is quickly colonised by weeds. A few weeds help to support wildlife, but you can shade out others with more attractive plants that are also popular with pollinators to give your garden a more designed look.
“If you’ve planted a new border with space between establishing plants or have a veg patch where harvested crops have left gaps, a cheap and easy way to prevent weed growth is to sow some beautiful annuals to temporarily fill the spaces,” suggests Millie Souter.
“Try sowing the white umbellifers Orlaya grandiflora and taller Ammi majus. Another eye-catching annual for a large bed with moist soil is Persicaria orientalis, which produces long-lasting, pink tassel-like flowerheads, held above stems of lush foliage that won’t allow weeds to get a foothold. Just be aware that it grows to over 2m in height and may self-seed.”
Put it on repeat
“If your planting lacks cohesion, it probably needs some careful editing to make it come together,” says Pollyanna Wilkinson. “Repeating the same plants, or plants with similar colours or shapes, can make a garden feel more cohesive.
“This means grouping narrow and small perennials and bulbs in clusters to give them greater mass and repeating them through the border, and in other beds in the garden, so that your eye bounces from one to the next. Also repeat existing materials such as stone or brick when creating new paths, patios or walls, and restrict your palette to just a few different types.”
Give reasons to explore
Gardens that are revealed all at once as soon as you step outside often lack interest and feel smaller than they are. “I like to create dynamic spaces that you want to explore, but if you can see everything from the house, there’s no need to ever venture outside,” says Pollyanna Wilkinson.
“The answer is to create a circuitous route and divide up the space with hedges or other tall planting that restricts the views through it. Adding level changes, even with just a couple of steps, instantly separates the space into different areas, too, while an arch or pergola covering a pathway invites you on a journey through it and takes the eye upwards.”