LARGE GARDENS

When a garden is geometric in its layout and a cottage garden either wouldn’t look right or isn’t the preferred style, a formal garden can act as an extension of the house, especially if the house is Victorian or Edwardian. They aren’t for the faint-hearted as they require a lot of care. 

We added blocks of flowers to the perimeter of the garden to provide sections of colour. Formal gardens can look a little too manicured and, the soft, feathery nature of the flowers takes the edge off the structured plants and adds life and interest.

The internals of the house are modern, so a contemporary stone for the patio creates that continuity. When you have both modern and rustic in a garden, you have to transition. That transition is allowed to happen with the gravel walkway connecting both the modern patio and rustic old stone walls.

The house overlooks the garden, which is why it is less important to split the garden up. Also, the large lawn is required by the family to play lawn games. In order to add structure to a large lawn area, we used a box hedge to frame the lawn and make it more of a feature. We used blocks of green to accentuate this framing, providing continuity throughout the garden.

The patio is a generous size because its proportions should match those of the lawn. It would look out of place to have a cramped seating area next to such a large lawn. It is important to think through how the patio is to be used, for example, you should consider whether you want both a dining area and a relaxing area to be sure both would fit.

When a garden wraps around the sides of the house, designing a lawn so that it frames the house can take away the hard corners of the building. These side areas are often thought of as dead space, but we often design any side areas as the main focal points of the garden.

The design of the patio is very much dependent on how you will use the garden. In this garden, the patio is used as the main walkway. The row of trees creates an impressive entrance and provides an element of grandiosity.

As the walkway is lower than the main garden, we wanted to draw attention up and out onto the green space and up to the back of the garden, into the lush vegetation. 

We designed this garden to create a spectacular blaze of colours and a unique array of textures. In order to maximise the space for plants, there is no lawn, which is unusual due to the amount of maintenance such gardens require. In this case, the garden is maintained by a number of gardeners allowing for an amazing display.

To make the feature plant in each border more prominent, we used ground covering plants to frame the feature plant and also help lower the maintenance.

Don’t be tempted to have too many colours. A simple blue, white and purple scheme creates an elegant and calm display. In any garden, a decision must be made regarding whether the form of the plants is more important than the flowers or whether the two should work in harmony.

A large pond is a great addition to any garden. Here, the pond is in a side garden, which allowed us to design the garden specifically for the pond. When designing such a large contemporary pond, less is more. A simple lawn and hedge are enough to frame the pond and soften it.

The types of materials we used for the coping and stepping stones set the tone for the style. In this case, we used sawn sandstone paving. The stepping stones draw attention to the back of the pond, to the lily sculptures.

We like to design ponds that work sensitively with nature and wildlife. It’s important to have slopes to allow frogs to get out of the pond. Also, think carefully about keeping fish in the pond. The waste they produce affects even the largest of ponds, meaning it will be necessary to clean and filter the water.

An element of sensitivity is required when designing an old garden, which is why we have added the balls and the surrounding plants. The layout was much the same, and fortunately, we were able to salvage the old walls bordering the main lawn and seating area.

This garden was a side garden, so we didn’t have to worry too much about adding a patio or providing a large lawn area. Side gardens tend to have a function, and this garden was designed to provide a quiet place to sit and read.

Large gardens tend to have a good number of trees and areas of vegetation, and it’s important that we design with this surrounding landscape in mind. In order to connect this garden with the landscape around it, we made a feature of the yellow tree, placing the bench almost underneath it.

Many existing traditional gardens that have been well thought through have a framework we can work with that just needs to be improved and accentuated.

In this garden, the pathway was to stay and just needed to be cleaned up. We added a new planting scheme to frame the original pathway and a low-level hedge . These pillars frame the water feature ‒ without them, the water feature would feel too prominent.

A feature is often not just one object but includes the layering around it. In this case, the whole area is a feature with the crescendo at its centre. It is another example of how simplicity can create elegance.

If you like a bright vivid flower border and don’t want any lawn, then the plant varieties you choose are very important. You need plants that don’t spread and grow at the required height to create plant layering.

It is one of the more challenging gardens to design as it relies on a high level of plant knowledge. Here, we installed a gentle display with lots of attractive colours. We weren’t tempted to make the display too bright as this could have made it too garish. Using bright colours sparingly allowed us to specify which areas of the borders the eye is drawn to.

Within the border, we placed a topiary to hide the corner of the house. The other plants we chose for the border were to accentuate this feature plant.

In a garden where low maintenance is the priority, so much so that a large lawn would be an issue, consider large paving areas softened with blocks of green. Here, we used pleached trees to minimise the impact of the large, stark patio. They frame the garden nicely as each central stem is 1.8 metres tall, which allows you to see underneath it while also hiding the neighbours’ windows.

In order to avoid big borders on the left and right of the patio, we installed two water features. A well-designed water feature with the correct filtration requires a lot less maintenance than a planted border.

The garden has a perimeter wall, which requires fewer plants than a fence. We installed a light stone patio. It can be tempting to use a neutral-coloured stone, such as grey, which in such a large space can look bleak and lacklustre.

When designing a family garden it’s important not to over-design and to allow plenty of lawn space for children to enjoy. Instead, focus on high-quality products, such as the paving around the pool and patios. Paving such as sawn sandstone adds a quality that then acts as a feature of the garden.

We added a simple border halfway up the garden, in front of the paving, to hide the sun loungers. How you hide furniture is critical to any successful garden design. After all, you don’t want your garden to look like a garden furniture display.

We installed a pergola at the back of the garden with louvres that open and close, meaning the garden can be enjoyed in the rain. It’s important that this structure ties in with the modern paving, which is why we opted for a black brushed steel effect.

Where both a Victorian garden and a modern style are preferred, then you can utilise a modern feature as the central focal point and soften with the planting.

In this garden, the pathway was to stay, so the layout remained the same. We designed multiple contemporary pools to draw attention through the centre of the garden and framed the view with a low-growing hedge. It was important that the garden looked just as good in the winter as in the summer, so we incorporated only evergreen plants that don’t lose their leaves in autumn.

A large pergola accentuates the seating area and makes it feel more enclosed. Large seating areas can feel a little too spacious, so we alleviated that issue by adding a structure.

In this design, we were asked to install a contemporary terrace with a Mediterranean feel, and it needed to look spectacular at night.

The big difference between Mediterranean and contemporary styles is the finish. Contemporary gardens have a more angular and precise look, while Mediterranean gardens are less honed and have a more natural finish. Here, we installed a curved rendered effect to the top of the wall, as can be seen in most Mediterranean gardens.

When creating a main feature for a structured terrace that is very dominating, it’s important to pick a bold feature; otherwise, it can look out of proportion and be an anti-climax. We incorporated a Victorian water feature that is certainly striking. To enhance the vista, we added low-level lights. Fortunately, there was an existing hedge at the back of the garden, which lessened the need to add too much in the way of vegetation.

The design brief was to create a garden with contrasting greens and a splash of colour, and Alliums were the perfect choice. They’re a favourite at the Chelsea flower show with their lollipop-like flowers suspended gracefully above the vegetation below.

With a large garden, it’s a good idea to plant in large swathes for less maintenance and more impact, especially when you do something called textural complementation, which means having differing leaf forms next to one another.

Here, we planted feathery grasses to hide the seating area. It can be challenging to hide a seating area without it feeling claustrophobic due to being hemmed in with lots of plants. Feathery grasses provide enough of a barrier but it’s still possible to see through them when in the seating area.