Garden Design Ideas - Small Shallow Garden - Update 4

In the Warfield (Bracknell) garden the cladding is on, the pergola is built, the edgings are almost in, the paving is almost finished. You'd think that was most of the difficult bits out of the way. Think again. I'm at a crossroads design-wise, its touch and go, make or break. Not really, I'm just trying to decide what colour to paint the walls.

Here are the colours currently under consideration.

Violet



Aqua blue



Sky Blue (Boo says she likes this one)



Dusty Lilac




At the moment we are veering towards the lilac as there is to be a Lavender hedge opposite the painted wall. But if you've got the time, or the inclination, let me know what you think. Only polite suggestions/comments please!

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Garden Design Ideas - Small Shallow Garden - Update 3

The build for this small, shallow garden in Warfield (Bracknell), Berkshire is nearly at an end. The main structure of the garden is in place. All the retaining walls are built, the pergola is finished and the paving is going down.



The garden has been divided into distinct areas without using solid physical barriers. One of the ways this has been achieved is by creating two spaces that are enclosed by curved sections of low wall which have been finished with slate cladding which looks stunning. This gives them their own character, a sense of enclosure and the feeling that they are for different purposes. In short, open plan rooms.



One of these curved rooms is a seating area with a chunky pergola. I'm sure I've said it before and I will almost certainly say it again, but when you're designing a small garden which is overlooked you need to focus attention inside the garden. One sure way of achieving this is by building bold, architectural structures. In this garden the pergola serves this purpose and I'm delighted with how it's turned out. Greg from Tranckle Landscapes is a master of pergola construction and has done a brilliant job considering he's had to work with straight sections of wood round a curved wall...



The other curved wall encloses a piece of lawn into which will be set a stainless steel water feature. It is the sort of area where you can sit on a rug with a picnic and a book without the feeling that all the neighbours are peeking at you. The curved walls also help focus the eye inside the garden.



Even though space is fairly limited, there are two other sitting/dining areas. One of them I've designated the breakfast terrace, it catches the morning sun and is a short walk from the back door - an ideal place to take your morning coffee. The other is just outside the conservatory doors. It will house a couple of loungers from which the person lounging can watch the cook prepare food on the barbeque. Speaking of the barbeque, it has it's own designated enclosure with two peripheral cupboards and slate worktops. A mini outdoor kitchen.





I'm almost through choosing the paint colour. I want a bold colour to contrast with the charcoal slate cladding and bring some vibrancy into the garden. It's all too easy to fall back on white, but I love colour and a carefully chosen bright colour helps define the character of the garden without costing a fortune. I always say that if the clients hate the colour I'll go back and repaint it myself - one day someone will take me up on this!

The planting and lighting have been designed and we're just waiting for Greg to finish so we can get on with these important finishing touches. I'm always disappointed when we get to the end of a project and don't have any budget left for the lighting. After all we spend so much of our time in this country inside looking out at our gardens it's a shame not to be able to see them.

The decorative lighting has been designed to brush over plants, skim up trees, graze down pergola posts and wash up over the surface of the walls and fences. Although these lights will also provide an amount of ambient light, there are some strategically placed lights that can be switched on to give higher light levels when needed.

I've ordered some fab planters from Livingreen Design and these will be stuffed with seasonal colour - bulbs for the spring, Agapanthus and Hemerocallis for the summer, as well as housing some climbers for the walls of the house and fences. I'll say more about the planting scheme once we get cracking with the planting.

If you need help with designing your garden please get in touch via my Web site, or email me at linsey@linseysgardens.com.

How to design a garden

Garden design is not about being able to create a beautifully illustrated plan, although this is one of the many outputs of the garden design process. A garden designer’s role is to find creative, practical solutions to the many technical challenges presented by an outdoor space. A good garden designer can make a garden that is useable and suitable for a specific set of requirements as well as being beautiful and a pleasure to spend time in.

It would not be possible to tell you how to design a garden in a single article. I simply haven't got the space to explain about the correct ratio of mass to void, or how to create rhythm in a garden design, but I will outline what I consider to be the major steps in the garden design process.

1. Decide how you want to use the garden

Before you start thinking about how the garden will look, you need to decide how you want to use the garden. Ask yourself the following questions: how much time you’ve got to look after the garden, have you got any pets or children, do you have elderly visitors or relatives, do you have mobility problems, do you like gardening, do you enjoy spending time outside, do you like to eat and entertain outside, have you got loads of friends and family? The aim is to arrive at a list of requirements which forms the basis of the design process.

2. Do some research

If you are new to gardens, get inspired and find out what you like before you start thinking about your specific garden design. Visit some gardens, look in gardening books and magazines, go to some RHS shows like Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court Flower Show and look at the show gardens.

Experienced garden designers know the value of regularly looking at all forms of art and architecture in order to keep ‘visual vocabulary’ up to date and get inspiration for their designs.

2. Take the site survey

Take a thorough site survey and analysis. Measure the house including the position and height of all doors and windows. The survey should show steps, drains, manhole covers, chimney breasts, and anything else that will affect the final garden design.

Use triangulation and offsetting to plot in the boundaries of the garden, and the location of all plants, garden features and buildings. Make a note of things outside the garden like overhanging trees – they will affect the eventual design of the garden. Survey any level changes in the garden and mark these clearly on the survey.

Taking a soil sample for analysis – it’s important when planting to know what type of soil you have. Note down boggy places and other potentially troublesome parts of the garden. Look beyond the garden boundaries and see if there are any views or features that you can use as part of the new design – this is called ‘borrowing’ the view.


Draw up the site survey to scale, in ink on a piece of tracing paper large enough to allow you to set out the new design and put in labels.

3. Create the new design

Using your requirements and site survey create the new design using a series of interconnected geometric shapes. The final design should create a pleasing picture on paper and each element that comprises the design should be the correct size for its intended purpose. For example, if you want to seat 6 people on your terrace make sure it’s large enough to hold a table of the correct size with room to pull out chairs so that people can sit down and stand up comfortably.

Make sure your design addresses any sloping parts of the garden. If you want flat spaces and your site is sloping you will need to put in retaining walls – make sure these are clearly shown on the plan.

Draw up the design to scale in ink on a piece of tracing paper. Label everything clearly including wall heights, paved areas, lawn, edgings, pergolas, planted areas, walls with their heights, water features.

4. Choose construction materials

Select materials for constructing each area and make sure these are labeled on the plan. There are many different construction materials available and these will vary greatly in price and quality, for example, paving slabs come in all different types of stone and man made materials. Do some research around local DIY stores, garden centres, and building suppliers to find materials that suit your purpose, look great and fit your budget.

5. Create the planting plan

For each planted area in the garden draw up a planting plan with a mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs, herbaceous plants and bulbs that will give a year-round display of colour and scent. The plants give the garden structure and that important quality of seasonal change.

6. Create the construction plan

This a technical drawing that shows your contractors how to construct specific features in the garden such as steps and retaining walls. It can also contain details of required paving patterns and sections showing how paving is to be laid.

7. Create the setting out plan

This plan makes landscape contractors lives easy by giving measurements that show the dimensions and location of all features in the garden. For example, if you have a circular seating area somewhere in your garden design scheme you can show its diameter and the location of the centre of the circle from some fixed point (usually the house). This removes any potential measuring errors.

If you need help with designing your garden please get in touch via my Web site, or email me at linsey@linseysgardens.com.

Steeply Sloping Garden Design in Gerrards Cross - Finished!

This steeply sloped garden in Gerrards Cross is finally complete and I'm really proud of it.



The fab contractors, Manor Landscapes, battled with appalling winter weather and horrible access issues and they've done an amazing job. So, thanks very much to Chris, Paul, Geoff, Tom and others who's names I've forgotten.



The plants are in and all but one tiny section of the wall is painted - see if you can spot it! I won the battle to get the walls painted pink and everyone loves it including Geoff (ha!).



The lower terrace is enclosed on three sides by rendered blockwork walls which also form the retaining walls for the first level of raised planting. There is a herb garden who's retaining wall functions as an informal seat adjacent to the chunky pergola which screens the BBQ area. This terrace is split into two levels simply for practical purposes - there were some manhole covers the height of which could not be changed and their height dictated a different finished height of paving in the two areas.

This terrace is large enough to two sizeable rattan sofas and a large dining table. It has a contemporary, formal feel, it is sheltered and has a really nice sense of enclosure and privacy. A large patio area was one of the main requirements and the clients are delighted with their new outdoor room.



Another key requirement was a large, flat lawn on the upper terrace. This is the area where the evening sun sets and the clients wanted a place where their grandchildren could play and they could sit and enjoy the last of the sunshine.

The new lawn was created on the top terrace and is enclosed by a Hornbeam hedge, some scented climbers and a fan trained Garrya Elliptica. It is retained using railway sleepers which were used throughout the garden to keep the build costs down and minimise the impact of the large number of retaining walls required to create the garden. Planting and hard landscaping were deliberately kept to a minimum on the lawn terrace as the client specifically asked for a large, uninterrupted lawn area.



The pergola used to screen the BBQ area is deliberately chunky. It is never possible to completely block the view from an overlooking property - you would need to build a wall or fence as high as the house. The way it is done is by using bold structures and strong geometric shapes to stop the eye and focus attention inside the garden, giving the feeling of more seclusion.

The pergola was made from 150mm square timber uprights, with a 150mm square timber top frame. The top frame was notched to take the cross pieces and fixed to the top of the uprights with wooden pegs. The 150mm x 25mm cross pieces were also notched and then slotted into the top frame so that they fit flush into the structure. The whole pergola was painted black. It is softened by some planters with box balls and climbers that will grow up and partially cover the pergola. It is not intended that the plants will completely smother the pergola, I particularly want it's form to remain visible.



Steps lead from the patio terrace to the first raised level. Thereafter, I have used a winding ramp that leads up through planted borders to the top lawn level. The sides of the pathway are retained with railway sleepers and it is paved with one of my favourite garden construction materials - self-binding gravel.

Self-binding gravel is laid on top of a sub-base like paving, but it is simply whacked down and forms a semi-hard surface. You get some aggregate movement on the top of the path, giving that satisfying gravelly crunch. It is a natural looking material that provides a lovely contrasting texture to the hard paving and grass. It can be swept more easily than gravel and doen't spread around as much as loose aggregate.



Here are the other posts about this project which show the progress of the build from the start Introduction, Update 1, Update 2, Update 3

If you need help designing your garden please visit my Web site for all contact details.

Garden Design Ideas - Small Shallow Garden - Update 2

The build for this small, shallow garden in Bracknell, Berkshire is well underway and can really get a sense of how the garden will feel when it's complete. Already, there is a greater sense of enclosure and you can see how different parts of the garden will be used. This design shows that it is possible to create an uncluttered, small garden with distinct areas which each have a different atmosphere and function.



The retaining walls for the raised borders are all in place and waiting for a coat of render, or cladding. I'm just mulling over what colour to paint the walls. It will definitely be a colour, I'm just not decided on which one yet. I shall go and retrieve my paint charts and colour swatches and examine them over a cup of tea later.



The paving has arrived and is being laid. I have chosen this silver blue which I use a lot as it goes well with almost any brick colour and helps to create a clean, crisp finish.



The walls of the barbeque enclosure are also nearly finished. This is just an alcove for the barbeque to slide into with peripheral cupboards. It's a very neat solution (if I say so myself) to storing the barbeque which often ends up standing folornly on the patio looking rather untidy. The two cupboards will be finished with a slab which will be sealed and function as worktops, turning a storage area into an outdoor kitchen.



The pergola over the shady seating area is due to go in next. Metal pins have been mortared into the footings for the retaining wall around the seating area, these are to hold in place the chunky 150mm square uprights. The retaining walls will be constructed around the uprights. The whole structure will be painted black, as will all other wood in the garden.



I am currently working on the lighting plan and planting plan for this garden, more of that in the next update.

If you need help designing your garden please visit my Web site for all contact details.