Gardening And Design
Posted: Monday, November 29, 2010
by Mark Bartley
We dedicate plenty of time and money creating a perfect home in which to relax, but there's a whole extra 'room' outside that with a little planning can add more options to your indoor living space. Understanding the basics of gardening permits you to let your creativity loose and develop your garden into an 'outdoor room' that can suits your needs, your personality and those of your family.
An initial consideration when gardening is what space do you have to work with and how would you like to structure your outside room. What activities are going to take place in your garden – should it serve as an additional dining area for al fresco dinner parties or would you prefer a garden that leads the visitor on a journey and constantly surprises?
Thinking about the structure and design is your starting point for any gardening project. If cash to fund your project is limited, think about how you can keep your existing layout but perhaps create new points of interest through the use of spotlight planting, eye-catching ornaments or paths that lead to hidden corners and secret surprises.
Colouring your garden for all seasons. Colour is an essential ingredient in any gardening project. The beauty of a cottage garden style with colour and freedom or the deceptive simplicity of a 'white garden' can reflect your personality and your mood perfectly. In the same way that paint can transform a room in the home, colour in a garden can reflect the changing seasons or make a bold, brash statement. Blocks of colour work well, but think about how each bed will look throughout the seasons and don't just focus on summer displays or spring bursts of vibrancy.
With some careful planning, you can create an outdoor room that develops and transforms as the seasons do. Bold yellows and creams of daffodils and crocuses in spring give way to swathes of multi coloured borders as summer arrives. In the autumn flowers often give way to larger plants and bushes providing structure and offering a tapestry of golds, reds and browns and during the winter months evergreens and late flowering plants such as hellebores add an unexpected twist to the gardener's palette.
Creating a living space in your garden is something many gardeners aim for. Your garden doesn't just have to be an illustration of your gardening skills. It can also be a space that can be enjoyed for a range of activities through the clever use of partitioning. By sectioning off your garden you can also create the illusion of space – ideal if your garden has a limited footprint. Decking outside some patio doors is perfect for al fresco dining or enjoying mild summer evenings, while a separate section can be created to give the kids somewhere safe to play.
How you use this 'outdoor room' is limited only by your own imagination. In the coming weeks we'll consider ideas to help you get the most from your gardening and to create various outdoor rooms, ranging from traditional cottage gardens through to design-led twenty first century designs.
All types of gardening have been covered by Mark, a regular writer on gardening subjects.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)It's an original way of looking at a garden to think of it as an outdoor room. I like it.
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