![]() ![]() ![]() Gates make excellent stopping points and the more decorative the better. Rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' is a good rose for an arch as the flowers hang down. A good height for an arch is 2.4m with a minimum width of 2m. You can also have an arch with a trained crab apple tree each side to create an apple bower. ![]() Arches add romance to a garden, especially if you grow roses up them. Other structural elements can be particularly decorative. With small gardens, sometimes you can make your garden feel bigger by cutting off the view of most of the garden using hedges or fences, but using a mirror at the end to make the garden appear longer. If your garden slopes up away from the house, it might be better to have an open view of the garden, but with shorter divisions such as retaining walls and low hedging. The division can be a wall or a hedge, and it will probably also act as a windbreak. You can then create another 'room' which might open up to the countryside. In larger gardens, if your garden slopes downwards, a good idea is to make the most of the slope by adding a dividing line where the level changes. Rugosa and other roses make beautiful hedges too. If you prefer a deciduous hedge, then hornbeam is good on clay soils and beech on lighter soils. It also likes to be fed in the winter so feed it throughout the year and you will have a good hedge within 3-4 years. Yew needs good drainage so plant it very carefully and if you are on heavy soil you would need to backfill the planting hole with at least 200mm of grit. If your garden requires a tall hedge, you need to decide whether it will be evergreen, in which case yew is a wonderful choice. Try to avoid clutter by just incorporating three or five really good elements from the above list. Are you going to have a hedge, a fence, arches, gates, sculpture, containers, or topiary? If your garden is small, think less is more. Once you have decided where you are going to sit and relax in your garden, you need to think about structure. Pictured: a country garden by Angel Collins A formal pool (see above) should be very simple and the shape of this pool will be replicated throughout the garden.Clip your trees into formal shapes, such as hawthorn, hornbeam or lime and if your garden is big enough, plant some of these trees further out and let them grow naturally.These will all relax the eye and nothing will compete. Keep your planting palette fairly restrained, for example, stick to a pale palette of yellow, creams, whites and lime greens or a range of blues, greys and deep reds.Fill your garden with topiary and some well placed container planting and you will have a wonderful clean look which is hopefully easy to maintain.Decide on your shape and keep repeating this shape throughout the garden, whether it is flower beds, paths, water, or the space between these elements.Symmetry and balance are two of the most important dimensions in a formal garden, along with geometric shapes within a simple planting design.Work out where the sun sets and plant accordingly so that the light of the evening sun catches on plants. Try to be bold and think about playing with scale. If your garden is large then take some more time to envisage your space, working out what goes where and how you can divide up the space. Keep the planting simple, using grasses or roses with evergreen shrubs and plant pots overflowing with all your favourite seasonal planting. If your garden is small, then try and work out your basic needs and stick to a simple design with one or two wow factors. In a city garden, you will want to work out where you want to sit when you come home from work and whether you are going to have a garden full of plants or a simpler garden with elements such as beautiful paving and water, with either a wall or beautiful fence or planted boundaries. Do you want a vegetable garden? What about space for your children? Any kind of garden will require compost, and serious gardeners might want a shed. You may need space for some everyday practicalities like storage for toys or a washing line. The first thing to think about is a seating area with some pretty garden chairs - preferably this should be near the house and if possible facing south west. Before you start, think about how you are going to use your garden and what you need to make that happen. ![]()
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