Lawns have been a focal point for landscape gardening for centuries, whether they are neatly striped, billiard-table flat lawns behind a house or the rolling expanses of parkland made popular by Capability Brown and his followers in the eighteenth century. Lawns Losing Popularity If you are coming toward the end [...]
Most of the time when we think about landscape gardening we're thinking of ordinary gardens, the type that any normal family would have behind their house. But there are places that have much larger gardens, or perhaps paddocks or fields joining their property. What are the considerations when you are [...]
A well-maintained lawn can make a major contribution to any garden and whether you are starting a-fresh, or replacing an existing poor quality patch of grass, turf offers one of the best ways to achieve that "perfect" patch of green. While creating a new lawn with turf works out more [...]
Plants for the garden tend to get chosen for the colour of their flowers, foliage or berries, but this is far from the only thing you might want to consider when it comes to the selection, particularly if you are looking to create a strong focus. Structure, shape and form [...]
Working with the colour and texture of the huge variety of plants available is one of the fundamentals of garden design – and one of the most effective ways to provide a major impact. It is an area which offers gardeners unrivalled opportunity to indulge their personal tastes with their [...]
Although gardens are inevitably at their peak and most showy during the period from late spring through to mid- to late summer, with a little planning, it should be possible to provide interest throughout the changing seasons. Picking plants to bring new sights and appeal to each successive stage in [...]
Although carpeting the ground with dense groupings of low-growing plants is principally about reducing the amount of weeding needed to keep beds looking good, using ground cover can contribute to the low maintenance garden in others ways too. In addition to being functional, well chosen and carefully planted ground cover [...]
Grass is such a well established feature of gardens that it can often be almost invisible – overlooked, except when it becomes necessary to roll out the lawn-mower for its regular cut. The type of grass and the way in which it is used within the overall landscaping scheme makes [...]
Roses have enjoyed a long and deserved reputation amongst both gardeners and poets through the ages – offering a bewildering diversity of colours, shapes, forms and fragrances, with enough variety and flexibility to suit any garden. With over 100 wild species and more than 13,000 cultivated varieties to chose from, [...]
Well chosen herbaceous planting brings a splash of colour to the garden and with a huge array of candidates for sale in the average garden centre, you are likely to be spoilt for choice. The herbaceous border really became an established feature of gardens when its popularity rose in the [...]
Long established as features of the British countryside and gardens, hedging forms an important element of the structure and character of the overall design. If your garden belongs to an older property, you may have been lucky enough to inherit an old hedge, with all its years of living history, [...]
When it comes to adding height, structure and a point of interest to the landscape, there is nothing to beat a tree. Whether it’s a stand of mature, native broad-leafs or smaller and more exotic types – Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) or Snow Gum ( Eucalyptus pauciflora) – few plants [...]
Shrubs form the backbone of the planting design, their architectural forms and enduring interest playing an important role in setting the overall tone of the whole garden. Aside of a wide variety of shapes, sizes and silhouettes, they also make a huge contribution to the colour palette with their large [...]
Whether grown over a trellis or pergola, against the house itself or used to scramble over an unsightly wall or fence, climbers bring a touch of the dramatic to the planting scheme. Within their ranks there is a huge array of different types, so whatever you are after – showy [...]
Whatever the size of a landscaping job – from simply redeveloping an uninspiring or under-used corner to planning a whole new garden from scratch – once you have decided on the general features and layout, it’s time to think about picking your plants. For most gardeners this is probably top [...]
