inspirational gardens

How to Make a Garden Great

Inspirational gardens can do more than just inspire, if you know what to look for they can show you how to make your own garden sensational.

I’m currently on a jolly around Spain and Portugal. I mean, I’m working very hard on your behalf, to find exceptional gardens that will inspire and help you improve your own garden.

What Makes A Stunning Garden?

Mostly it’s shape. The shapes you create within the garden are the most important, not the actual shape of the garden. After that it comes down to subtle factors. Today, we’ll take a look at those more subtle elements that make the difference between OK and great gardens.

The above picture is of Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, a garden I discovered quite by accident whilst wandering around the beautiful city of Cordoba, Spain. I’m not usually drawn to formal garden styles but this one really did it for me. It took my breath away. There aren’t many gardens that I say that about, being a fussy designer.

What Makes This Garden So Hot (apart from the climate)?

What impressed me so much about this garden, wasn’t the obvious grandeur, the exuberant water features or the stunning setting. It was the use of sightlines and focal points. Everywhere you looked there was a stunning view. Every conceivable viewpoint had been thought about. I’ve never been in a garden before where every time I turned round there was something more amazing to look at with every view.

The design of this garden had been thought about, really thought about. This garden didn’t just happen, it was planned. Every time you reached the end of the path and looked to your left or right, there was another path with a view enticing you to go further into the garden. Turning around to view behind you was even more spectacular than walking down it in the first place.

So How Was This Achieved?

With very controlled sightlines. Every view was carefully orchestrated. The designer had complete control over what you saw and what you didn’t. It was impossible to see the entire garden in one go with the use of taller planting and hedges steering your view. This very clever organisation of space, with strategically placed features and focal points, made for a truly wondrous garden.

How Can You Transform Your Garden?

Think about how your garden is viewed from different locations. Which view do you see the most? Is it the view from your kitchen window perhaps? If so, what is it that you’re looking out to? Can you improve the view by the placement of a bench or statue? Then, when you get to that point in the garden, what is the view that you are looking back to?

Really think about how the garden is viewed from different locations. Then look at how you can improve each view by shaping it and placing a focal point to capture and hold attention. It doesn’t have to be a stature, a specimen plant like the one in the picture below can often do the trick.

Experience It Yourself!

Annoyingly I haven’t been able to do this garden anywhere near justice with my photography skills. It is spectacular in a way that will make your heart miss a beat, so I urge you to go and see it for yourself and experience the mastery of an exceptionally well planned garden.

Next Week It’s Plant Time

In the next blog post we will take a detailed look at what made the planting so effective in this garden. We’ll also discuss how you can create great planting schemes in your garden.

If you want to know precisely how you can make your own garden great, check out the Great Garden Formula Course. The discounted price will be coming to an end soon, so make sure you snap up a bargain now! The people that have already taken advantage of the discount are having great results, so I’m confident you will too (hence the 60 day money back guarantee!).

Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: backyard landscaping ideas, Garden design ideas, garden design tips, inspirational gardens

Inspirational Gardens part 2 (sort of!)

By Rachel Mathews 4 Comments

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Best laid plans

Don’t you just love it when you have a really good idea, one that will undoubtedly be helpful and inspiring for people but there’s a small technical glitch that throws a spanner in the works? Well, I’ve discovered a bit of a glitch with this particular monthly feature on inspirational gardens and the people behind them.

The first one I choose, the wonderful Veddw garden in South Wales, was an easy choice; great garden, lots of accessible photographs and it proved to be very popular. During my interview with Anne Wareham, I asked her to pick the next Inspirational Garden. She’s picked an absolute cracker, trouble is this garden isn’t so accessible. It’s a private garden, one that is open to viewing by arrangement. There is no website, very few photographs online and I’ve not had any luck getting hold of the owner when I’ve phoned! With Veddw, there were so many photographs, I felt like I’d been there. Not the case with this garden.

Gardening flesh

I’ve seen enough photographs to be thoroughly intrigued by Anne’s choice but not enough pictures that make me feel I could do it justice writing about it. So there’s only one thing for it – I need to go and visit it and see for myself how a garden has been constructed using just two main plants. There are other plants in the garden but two plants dominate the design.

Not that I’m a complete tease or anything, but I’m not going to reveal which garden Anne chose just yet. I will give you a clue, though; it’s in Swansea. As soon as I’ve visited it, I will tell you all about it.

Something a little closer to home

Grass Maze - Cambridge Botanic Garden

Instead, I’m going to show you a garden that’s close to my heart. Having moved to Cambridge last year, I do love to hang out at the Botanic garden. The photograph above shows part of their dry garden. Although Cambridge has lots of open green spaces (one of the many reasons I love living here) my favourite is definitely the botanic garden. On sunny afternoons, when I’m finished designing for the day, I pop over with my camera, treat my self to a nice big slice of cake and then wander around the garden taking photos for my plant design album.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden, like most botanic gardens, it is more plant focused than design orientated, there are some areas that have been well-designed and a lot of thought has gone into the planting schemes. The Botanic garden is situated on a 40 acre site, right in the city centre, though it doesn’t feel that large. It’s a great place to visit if you are looking for plants and trees to inspire you for your garden. I particularly love how they use grasses in the herbaceous borders. There is a nice mix of traditional and modern influences throughout the garden.

Stipa calamagrostis - Cambridge botanic garden

Where do you suggest?

I’d like to visit lots of great gardens this year. I’m looking forward to doing this. I used to visit gardens all the time when I first qualified, so I’ve done the usual ones like Sissinghurst, Hestercombe and Hidcote. Veddw, of course, is already on my list for the summer. I’d also love to visit less well known gardens. What other suggestions do you have? Do email me or leave a comment if you have a suggestion. Doesn’t just need to be UK gardens; I’m happy to go further afield in search of glorious gardens.

A view of Cambridge

For those that aren’t familiar with Cambridge here are some of my favourite views.

'The Backs' Cambridge

King's College Cambridge

Roll on summer…

Fancy a punt?

Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: Cambridge botanic garden, Garden Design, Garden design ideas, inspirational gardens

Inspirational Gardens and the People Behind Them [part 1]

By Rachel Mathews 10 Comments

We are getting back to gardens this week after the frivolity of last week’s Honest Scrap Award. This is the first of a new monthly-ish feature on inspirational gardens. I’ve chosen this first one to get the ball rolling, then all subsequent gardens are chosen by the person I’ve interviewed, which should, I hope, make for an interesting journey for us all.

Veddw House Garden copyright Charles Hawes

Garden Design Elements

My inaugural Inspirational Garden is Veddw House Garden in Monmouthshire, South Wales. The garden has been created by Anne Wareham and her husband Charles Hawes. Anne is a garden writer for newspapers and magazines. She is also a garden consultant and is involved with ThinkinGardens, for people who want more than gardening from their garden. Charles is a professional photographer and has very kindly allowed me to use his photographs of Veddw House Garden for this article.

I’ve only recently discovered Veddw House Garden (shame on me – I should never have cancelled my Gardens Illustrated subscription!). I’ve been really impressed by the creative and clever layout of the garden. It is obvious how much energy and thought has gone into it. What impresses me most about this garden is its creators; neither Anne or Charles are professionally trained garden designers. They have created this garden from scratch. Anne started it with a spade in her hand. It’s a two-acre garden. That’s quite an undertaking for anyone.

Veddw House Garden copyright Charles Hawes

Where Do You Start To Create A Garden Like This?

I asked Anne where and how she got started on this amazing garden. She told me the first thing she did was to clear it. The overgrown trees and shrubs were removed and this enabled Anne to see the garden properly. Most people are too afraid to take things out and totally start again but for Anne this was a necessity not an option.

Having a two-acre garden to develop from scratch is a big challenge and a scary one at that. I was very curious as to how Anne went about transforming her garden, when, in her words, she knew absolutely nothing about creating a garden. She did something that is obvious, yet so few people do it…

You Can Do What Anne Has Done Too

She studied gardens, in depth. Anne went to every garden centre, nursery and open garden she could. She read books, magazines and totally immersed herself in all things garden. She asked a lot of questions. Most people tend to do some of those things but not all. Anne stuck at it until she understood what makes a good garden. It’s not about what plants you use. It comes down to what shapes you create before you add the plants.

Veddw House Garden copyright Charles Hawes

A Curious Design Method…

I wanted to know about Anne’s design process. Does she sit down with a sheet of paper and plan it or could she see it in her mind? I was expecting her to say she could just see it all in her mind but that couldn’t be further from it. Anne is like many people, myself included early on in my design career, she can’t visualise how things will look. If you’ve read the blog post I did a while back on visualising your garden, you’ll know that it’s not as important a skill as you would think.

Anne’s design method is born out of her curiosity; she will think of two or three different things and wonder how they would look if she puts them together. So the only way to satisfy her curiosity is to actually go and do it.

The Problem With Focusing On Plants

Iris sibirica Veddw copyright Charles Hawes

Anne is passionate about good structure in gardens (and I mean REALLY passionate about it). One of her pet hates is how easily seduced people are by plants. Too much focus on plants and the garden becomes an incoherent mess. As a nation we are plant obsessed and it is all too often to our detriment. Mention your plant collection to Anne at your peril!

An Inexperienced Gardener

Before Veddw, Anne’s experience of gardens was limited to a small London garden and before that a tub of herbs she’d grown from seeds on the flat roof of her flat! So if you were thinking that it’s impossible to create a great garden without a lot of garden experience, you’d be wrong. Anne and Charles started the garden in 1987. They’ve developed it one section at a time. A garden like Veddw doesn’t happen over night, it evolves over time.

View across grasses copyright Charles Hawes

Anne’s Top Tips:

If you are starting a new garden, mulch as much as you can to keep the weeds down. Think about structure in your garden and read, read, read everything you can on gardens. You must educate yourself as much as possible. Her last tip is to go with the lie of the land, especially if you have countryside views. It’s important your garden sits well in its surroundings.

Visit This Great Garden

I do hope that if you are ever in South Wales, you will go and see Veddw House Garden for yourself. It’s open to the public on Sunday’s from 2-5pm June-August. And whilst you are visiting you may as well take a look at some other wonderful Welsh gardens. There is a fabulous book available (which features Veddw among others) called Discovering Welsh Gardens by Stephen Anderton, photographs by Charles Hawes.

I’d like to thank Anne for taking the time for the interview, especially as she’s facing a deadline for her new book ‘The Bad-Tempered Gardener’ for Frances Lincoln, which should be available early next year. If you’d like to know more about Anne, I would recommend you follow her on Twitter @bulchey – if there is a lively debate about gardens, she’ll be there…

Veddw House Garden Copyright Charles Hawes

Your turn?

If you can get a good understanding of how garden design works, then creating your own fabulous garden is definitely achievable. I hope seeing Charles and Anne’s garden has inspired you to tackle your own garden in a creative and thought provoking way. Gardens can be so much more than just a place to put the shed, you don’t need to be an expert to do it but you do need knowledge.

I’ve certainly been inspired by my conversation with Anne. Veddw House Garden is proof that if you put your mind to it, you can create something amazing with your garden. In fact she’s inspired me to take action to help people do just that. I’ll write more about the idea our conversation sparked in the next blog post…

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