10 Golden Rules of Garden Design

10 golden rules of garden design

Our aim is to help you transform your garden from ordinary to fabulous.  However, there are different levels of fantastic. Your garden doesn not need to look like a professionally designed garden to be fabulous. Garden design does not need to be expensive or involve major building works either. There are some sensible garden design rules to follow, but there are 10 golden rules that every gardener should pay attention to. It will help prevent an expensive design mistake – either at your hand, or even worse having got professionals in to redesign the garden. 

There is a garden for every space, a plant to use and a style to create, the trick is making sure all these design issues align. If they don’t it may look like the garden is amazing, but the reality may be that it takes a disproportionate amount of maintenance to keep that small space looking amazing.

Small garden spaces have specific problems unique to their size, but there are solutions to most of these garden design problems.

See: designing small spaces; why hanging baskets are a problem, designing a courtyard garden, balcony gardening and creating a small family friendly garden.

There seems to be a trend toward minimalism and contemporary gardens, especially in small spaces, the theory being, that if there are few plants, the gardens will be lower maintenance. Well this may be true, but often is not, nature will always drop stuff in your garden, so any design should plan for debris.

Lawns, kids and plants

How do you design a small garden that has enough space for children to play in but that is also a lovely place for adults to? Should a small garden have a lawn, will it be easy to look after, should you use artificial grass instead.

How can a small garden be interesting, after all it is usually surrounded by buildings, fences and maybe it is near a road so is noisy too. The best design advice in any small garden is to prioritise, what key elements should there be, and concentrate one getting those right.

Sheds and paths need thinking about too, as these will be dominant features in a small suburban garden, there are design tips and trick you can use to help disguise ugly features – garden mirrors being one of the best.