The Heart of Garden Design

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, a garden design should complement the heart and soul of the client and their property.

A Design Perspective From Guest Contributor & Garden Designer Stuart Bugby

   

Given the current situation, outside space is highly important; with bi-fold doors still ‘on trend’ the garden has become another room but where do you start? Interior design is a good base to understanding the needs of both you and your outside space! Thinking of your boundaries as the walls, is the first thing to get right.

 

Modern kitchen designs ensure every inch of cabinet is utilised with their clever use of internal storage to maximise space. A good garden designer will use the same principle with the finer detail and movement around a garden coming later; how the space is going to be used, comes first.

A survey of how a garden currently looks, done to scale, provides a crucial starting point to begin a design. Looking at the garden from above simplifies the space ready for the next detail.

In kitchen design we use a triangle that forms the most efficient use of space between the cooker, sink and refrigerator; this is a key starting point of positioning.

The transition between rooms within a home can be done simply by bringing the same flooring from the kitchen into, for example, the dining room or adjacent rooms. So! Once you know roughly how the space is going to be used and it works for you, the journey to different areas of the garden can be successfully achieved using repetition in some way, such as shape or form.

You can see in the photo (numbered 2) how different shapes of the same blue bring the space together, along with the same shaped glass blocks (picture 1) changing colour subtly, feels right. The same principle is used in picture 3 in which the wall bends around the corner leading you around the space. The wall is kept interesting with the use of flint, brick and a white hue. It works here due to the scale of the wall involved but remember to limit hardscaping materials in garden design to three complementary materials so that it doesn’t become too confused. Thanks to Stuart Bugby for writing this article. Stuart’s website is at Stugardens Design   

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