Garden Design Rules – 9 things you need to know

Autumn is a time of planning in the garden. For some that might mean devising a whole new garden, or giving an old garden a major overhaul. So I thought I’d share some garden design rules which I’ve picked up over the years.

How I Learned My Garden Design Rules

I hasten to add, I am not a garden designer. However, because I know I’m not, I researched voraciously before embarking on transforming my own garden. I read every blog and expert article under the sun. I watched videos, demos and attended a couple of courses and I looked around beautiful gardens.

What I learned I have applied to my garden. As you may have read in the ‘about me’ section of my blog, my aim was to turn what was my kids’ muddy football pitch, into a garden paradise. I’m certainly not there yet (I’ve two hideous sheds and an enormous cricket net which certainly don’t belong in paradise). However, some of the garden design rules I’ve applied have definitely worked. So I’m going to share them here.

Know Your Garden’s Purpose

Of all the garden design rules this has to be pretty fundamental. You will otherwise create a garden which doesn’t suit you and your life.

So before you do anything, get clear about what you want to use your garden for. Will it need to produce food for you? Is it to provide a living space? Are you big on entertainment? Or will its role simply be to look pretty? Do you need to accommodate an area for kids or grandkids to play in, and so forth. The answers to these questions will be fundamental to the garden you design.

For instance, my own garden has to accommodate the whole family. My kids are young adults but I still want them to feel the garden is for them. I have an old cricket net which my three sons and their mates still use, so I have to work around that – plus some very ugly sheds which Mr. F-W uses; they have to stay (for now). As for me, well I love my morning tea and toast sitting outside – so I need a patio near the kitchen. I’ve also a grown-up daughter who likes to sunbathe and read in the garden, so we need a sunny private spot for her.

I’ve designed the garden with all of these factors in mind:

The net’s masked with a line of trees – Catalpa Bignonioides Nana – and Annabelle Hydrangeas. This planting distracts the eye from the net, provides a brilliant focal point and the perfect spot for my daughter to lay out a blanket in the sun.

The sheds provide a backdrop to bird boxes, and fun, homemade planters. See how my kids and I made them here.

I’ve also ensured I have a large patio next to both the kitchen and our sitting room – so I can wander out on to it with my morning cuppa and evening G&T. Perfection!

Create A Flow

Another of the garden design rules I found helpful is to create a flow through the space. All too often you see gardens with straight paths down the middle, dividing up the space. This makes the garden predictable. It also takes the eye straight to the end of the garden; the garden appears smaller than it needs to.

Allow paths to meander and the plants to cut into the garden, so that the visitor is taken on a slower journey through your space.

Don’t Just Have Plants Around the Edge

I see this all the time, gardens where the plants are running around the perimeter – so boring! Whereas if you bring the planting into the middle of the space, it breaks things up and makes it a much more interesting garden to walk through. This approach also makes you feel like you’re surrounded by plants – which to my mind is the whole point! Plants are wonderful, I want them all around me.

Create Destination Points

I didn’t really appreciate this point until I accidentally created one!

My garden has a patio, which I love. This is near our house and I was very happy with that being my destination – sitting there with a cup of tea, admiring the garden. But nothing particularly drew you into the garden. It looked nice, but the temptation was to admire from afar and that was it.

However, I had an old wooden table and chairs which was too big for the patio (especially once my patio pots took over!) I didn’t want to chuck it out, so I temporarily moved it to the bottom of the garden, to a spot which gets evening sun. Well that was two years ago, and this has now become a wonderful destination point. It draws people deeper into the garden – and from this position you get a whole new view of the garden.

To further enhance this area, I’ve created a curving pot scheme which takes you past an old apple tree, to this seating area.

Know Your Spot

You can waste an awful lot of money and effort trying to grow plants which just don’t suit your garden’s conditions – and get very frustrated in the process. Trust me, I’ve been there! So one of the golden garden design rules which I’ve learned from bitter experience is know the conditions in your garden. Which areas are shady, which are sunny, which parts are sheltered and which are exposed.

You may find you have microclimates in different parts of your garden. Where you have walls, from a shed or boundary, you may have a lovely sheltered sun trap where you can grow more exotic-looking plants – which just won’t thrive in other parts of your garden.

I have exactly such a spot. It took me years to recognise this area’s conditions (I know, I’m slow on the uptake!) But now I have, I’m making the most of it. I’ve renamed it my ‘hot corner’ and I’m planting it with hot-coloured plants and more exotic Calla lilies and banana and ginger plants such as Hedychium aurantiacum. You can see how I’ve created the hot corner here.

I also have a Cotswold stone wall between me and my neighbours, Desi and Tim. The top of this wall is sunny, exposed to the elements – and it has phenomenal drainage. If I think about it, these are similar conditions to a mountain top, so I’ve planted it with succulents.

Also work out what your soil is like. If you’re not sure, this brilliant Gardener’s World blog will help you. There are also kits you can get for testing the acidity of your soil, but if you are working with a garden which already has plants in it you will be able to tell a lot from looking at what’s flourishing where.

Borrow Views

Another rule I’ve gleaned is don’t be afraid to borrow views from outside your garden. If a neighbour has a wonderful tree that turns red in Autumn, providing incredible colour, make use of it. Pick up on that colour with your own planting.

‘Borrowing’ external trees or other features such as a lovely view can make your own garden feel much bigger and more established. I know this from first hand experience. We have a copse of trees growing the other side of the wall at the bottom of our garden. They provide a lovely additional feature for us and make our garden appear to have a woodland!

So resist the urge to build high walls or fences that block out the outside world. Don’t hide from what’s there…borrow it!

Be Generous with Paths

If your space is limited, it is really tempting to treat paths as something very functional and make them as narrow as possible. I can see why this is done, after all you want to maximise your garden space – and in some instances an 18 inch wide path may be your only option. However, if you are able to be more generous with your paths, you will create a much more pleasing effect and your space will look bigger.

I’ve done this with the path which runs from my back door out into the garden. I must confess that I was quite resistant to this idea but Mr F-W said we should go for a wider path. So we did and it is a stroke of genius. It makes the area feel more generous and interesting. The path looks great with pots and plants such as our lavender spilling onto it.

I’ve also read suggestions of playing around with path widths – making them wider in some places and narrower in others to create an effect. I can well imagine that working brilliantly in the right situation.

Be Generous with Borders

One of the crucial garden design rules which is in a similar vein is to make your beds and borders as generous as possible. Thin strips (under 50cm wide) will only allow for a low hedge, a wall shrub, or a narrow line of perennials lined up like soldiers. Whereas if your beds and borders are wider (in excess of two metres if you can), they will be able to hold lovely multi-layered planting – at least three plants deep. Shrubs, roses and more natural drifts of perennials and grasses, creating a sense of depth and space. Gorgeous!

Spend Nearest the House

This is a tip I picked up from garden designer Susan Dunstall. She said, when thinking about where you are going to spend the bulk of your garden budget, focus the spend on the areas of your garden which are nearest your house. These are the areas you will spend most time seeing and being in. This is such good advice and definitely something I’ve followed. My patio, the flower bed which borders it, and the other planting nearest the house have definitely received the lion’s share of my gardening budget.

So these are my 9 top garden design rules. Though I would add, don’t feel you have to follow these or any other rules slavishly. It’s your garden. So long as you and your family enjoy it, that’s what really matters.