A Fresh Start...

The Design Studio, Company of Landscapers

​A New Year often brings new beginnings, resolutions and ideas to make changes.  An ideal time to look at your garden with fresh eyes and make plans for improvements to your outdoor space to enjoy all year round.  Whether you are setting out to create a new garden, develop one of several years standing or entirely reshape a plot inherited from previous owners, careful planning can help avoid many pitfalls and ensure that you end up with the result you had in mind all along.
 
The importance of good garden design cannot be under-estimated.  As an architect is pivotal in the successful layout, planning and efficient construction of your home a good garden design will make the most of your plot and the space within it, taking into account your preferences, wishes and the way you use your garden whilst enhancing the natural landscape and ensuring it fits into its surroundings.  Investing in a well-designed garden would bring benefits and enjoyment for many, many years to come and add value to your property.
 
This is particularly relevant in the current circumstances where we are all spending more time at home and looking to our gardens to enhance our well-being as well as being spaces in which we are working from home, playing, relaxing, using as outdoor gyms and hopefully, in time, entertaining our friends and family again!  Having a beautiful garden to enjoy whilst being outside in summer or indeed to look at from inside during the winter months and possibly at night too brings immeasurable joy.
 
A good garden designer will take the time to visit your garden and listen to your ideas, needs and budget and of course view what they have to work with.  Our initial consultation is without charge but if you wish to engage us we will be happy to assess the scale of the design work required and provided an estimate of fees.  A comprehensive site survey and appraisal will be carried out and a brief or “wish list” drawn up and agreed to cover all the elements you and your family want in your new garden.  Our mission is to crystalize your ideas into a coherent, practical and pleasing transformation of your outdoor space.  Garden design is an art form, an empathy with human behaviour and practicalities.   A sound knowledge of construction techniques is required as well as good creative and drawing skills, a natural eye for what looks and feels good whether it be the curve of a border, the relationship between types of materials to be used or the right combination of trees, shrubs and perennials to create the desired effect.  It is organising the marriage of where man-made structures meet nature.  Buildings predominately consist of straight lines, nature does not have any, the skill is to make them complement each other.
 
Garden design is an iterative process involving several meetings to discuss how concepts may work given the designers experience and knowledge and of course, your preferences.  Discussions range from the new general shapes and layout of beds, lawn, patios and pathways to details such as types and patterns of paving, stone or brick for walls as well as thoughts on the effects to be achieved with the planting of new beds and borders.  It’s an exciting time; ideas percolate through from both sides as the new garden takes shape.  Three to four weeks is a usual timeframe for the new garden plans to be prepared as scale drawings for craftsmen to follow or indeed our landscaping team to implement.
 
The second consideration to any garden design is the most exciting part.  The layout and the structure can be considered the foundation, the bare bones if you like; the planting is the icing on the cake! It is also the most exacting as they are many considerations to take into account.  For example, soil type and aspect; colour, texture, shape, height and foliage of the plants and the overall mood or feeling that is to be achieved to mention just a few!  It is also crucial to select plants that will thrive in the locality.  We will go into this element in more detail in next month’s issue of The Sherborne Times.  In the meantime, if you are considering developing your outdoor space for more “living” room, we’d love to talk to you.

Credit - Sherborne News