What does your garden mean to you?
Some suggestions as to how a garden can be made special & personal
On some level, most people find peace and tranquility within an outdoors space. Outdoors, we are less confined. We have more freedom to be ourselves. It therefore stands to reason that if we have our own outdoors space to experiment with, and to shape into our special place, it will contain many shades of our personality. At the opening of the Chelsea Flower Show in 2017, The Telegraph suggested a number of ways in which planting styles, and interests within horticulture and landscaping, can represent a personality. Whilst these must be taken with a satirical pinch of salt, colour, life, light, form and shape can personify who someone is, and more importantly, they can help to create a space where you are comfortable.
There are usually two types of landscaping involved with gardening; soft or hard. Soft landscaping involves the lawn you choose, the shrubs, the trees and the plants. Effectively, anything that is living is soft.
Here are some ways you can use soft textures and life to bring your style to your garden:
- Does precise symmetry, with everything in its place, appeal to you? You might think about creating a geometric knot garden, with a formal style of planting. Box or privet hedges can form green partitions, solid lines to enclose the froth of colour coordinated planting within. If you are less fixed or resolute in your taste, go for lines that aren’t straight; for softer, more fluid curves, and for edges that flow into areas of lawn or planted shrubs.
- Do you thrive in an environment of hot, bright colour, or in a space that is more subtly relaxing? Select the colours of your blooms to suit the way you think, and how you unwind. If you’re a bright, and awake, and prefer everything slightly edgy, you might choose planting plans inspired by Piet Oudolf, taking prairie plants like echinacea and rudbeckia, to sit like jewels amongst waving miscanthus grasses and ferns. If your preference is for a pastel palette, for a garden that is classically inspired, then look for geraniums in soft shades, for roses and buddleja.
A look at how hard landscaping can create a sense of you
- If you are a person who likes solid lines and symmetry, but also a touch of beauty and colour, you might create a natural stone wall that is spilling over with roses
- If your inclination is for softer informality, treehouses, summerhouses, or willow sculptures might help to create a sense of a space with secret pockets and hidey holes. In this day and age, there are always a range of summer houses for sale to suit you
Outdoor spaces are our pride & joy
Once your garden reflects your personal style in a way you are happy with, there’s nothing quite like inviting friends over to share it. Every year, the mountaineer Doug Scott opens his garden to the public, raising funds for Nepal via the National Garden Scheme. Visitors are treated to an array of Nepalese prayer flags, tranquil ponds, self-irrigating rows of strawberries in a bright courtyard, and cosy summerhouses and alcoves filled with cushions and writing materials, when Doug records his memories of climbing as he looks out on the garden.
Be inspired, and visit this website for a charming collection of summerhouses that can add to your display.