Choosing a style for your garden

Gardening is a popular pastime for many people as it offers the opportunity to escape into an outdoor space and design a unique garden that reflects personal tastes and preferences. Some people prefer a garden that is well manicured, has short grass and edged lawns with borders and flower beds organised to look neat and tidy whereas others like a much more unstructured garden with meandering paths and wildlife areas that are left to grow wild. Whether it be a casual, laid-back garden or a more formal, traditional one, there are so many different styles of garden available to choose from.

When creating a garden from scratch or reviving a tired looking garden, it is important to consider all aspects of design from casual planting with native plants and wildflowers, to rockeries and water features for contrast and variety. There are also more formal options such as lawns, paving and raised beds that provide structure and give a more structured feel to the space. Whether your garden is large or small there are plenty of ways you can get creative and add character to your garden.

If you decide that a casual garden is for you it can be designed with a mixture of self-seeding plants like foxgloves or forget-me-nots along with shrubs like lavenders or roses that will last longer when cared for properly. A casual style of planting also allows you to mix up colours in flower beds or use tall grasses as accent pieces alongside pathways. You could even try out container gardening such as window boxes or hanging baskets if you have limited space available or feel unable to do much digging. 

If you prefer your garden to look more structured, a good first step is to think about incorporating crisp lines and interlocking pathways when laying out your garden’s design. Using elegant topiary trees could be an interesting feature as they add structure while also providing focal points in the landscape. Paved patio areas are a wonderful way to utilise spaces in the garden as they allow you to create al fresco dining areas where friends and family can gather together outdoors during warmer months.

Water features and ponds offer another dimension when designing a garden. You may want an ornamental pond and fountain if you are designing a formal garden or a wildlife pond with planting right up to the edges in a more relaxed setting. Rockeries can also bring texture and depth into your garden and if local stones are arranged to act as steppingstones amongst lush foliage it can transform a run of the mill garden into a fantastic outdoor space.