Designer's Corner

BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2010

Here’s a show with a difference! It is an RHS show, so gardens are assessed and judged to the normal RHS criteria but the show is run in conjunction with the BBC so there is show biz glitz and celebrities are everywhere.I explored this year’s show gardens hunting for some inspiring hard landscaping ideas that would be easy to recreate. I had to look hard, with many gardens offering minimal hard landscaping and masses of plants, especially vegetables, with paving being replaced in som... [More]

Hard Landscaping and Easy Planting

When I’m doing planting plans I try to follow all the rules about choosing the right plants for the position they are going in (shade lovers for the north facing border, drought tolerant plants for freely draining soil in a sunny spot and so on). Then I start to think about the colours of the flowers and foliage and how they will all look together.   Once all that is chosen, there is still the colour and style of the hard landscaping to factor in and I’ve noticed that some pla... [More]

Designing the Patio

If you are thinking of revamping your garden, you will almost certainly want to include a patio area. You know you don’t just want the usual rectangle of paving slabs just outside the back door, but how do you go about planning something unique? [More]