Garden designer, Maria Greenhill offers these tips for a stylish garden.
Keep it simple. Good design is simplicity. Use geometric shapes to create the basic structure. You should be able to draw your ground plan with a ruler and a compass. Of course, shapes can be overlapped but avoid freehand curves. Choosing the shape for your main borders, patio and lawn should not be done with a hosepipe spread on the ground.
Less is more. Mies van der Rohe first made this statement and designers have been quoting it ever since. Clutter is anathema to good design. It may be attractive to include focal points but if your eye has to take in too many things at once then you become distracted and it is far from relaxing. Once again, keep it simple.
More, more, more. The most attractive gardens are those where there are bold drifts of planting. There are a mouth-watering selection of plants in the garden centre but rather than lots of different varieties restrict your palette. Have more of the same plants. Be bold and plant in large groups. Few people would plant just one Crocosmia so why only plant one Sedum? Plant in groups of 3,5 or more. Don’t forget to repeat groups of plants around the garden as well. It makes the garden more cohesive and restful.
Simplify your range of materials. With such a vast range of materials at your disposal why do some people feel the need to use them all? The choice for the floor alone can be overwhelming. Decking, slate, cobbles, gravel, brick etc. Be selective. Contrasts can be good but choose too many and a confusing muddle results. In a small space inside you would not dream of combining wood flooring, coir matting, sisal, wool carpet and rugs. So exercise the same restraint outside.
It’s not hard to design an attractive garden if you remember the golden
rule.
Keep it simple.