Summer is nearly over, but your garden is a year-round experience. Even if you’re not soaking up the rays from the glory of your sun-baked lawn anymore, you still get to enjoy its aesthetics from the kitchen window, conservatory or even your covered patio.
All of this is to say that you should be able to take pride in your garden all year, and not just for the handful of weeks that bring the most light. As such, renovating your garden space is more than a seasonal event; it’s an opportunity to do something magical for your space that you can enjoy whatever the time of year. But what are your options, and how could you make them work?
Japanese Zen Garden
Japanese-inspired home décors are nothing new; indeed, many commonplace design choices in Western interior design have been poached from Japanese design philosophy over the years, let alone the huge direct influence of Japanese home layouts on certain doer-uppers. The zen garden is perhaps the most recognisable trope in Eastern-inspired exterior design, and could be an excellent opportunity to create something both relaxing and low-maintenance.
Zen gardens are also known as ‘dry gardens’, for the striking lack of vegetation. These are minimalist affairs, that utilise sprawling fields of raked sand bounded by gravel or slate, stippled with feature stones, border walls and a few well-pruned plants for good measure. The simplicity here adds to a sense of tranquility, and creates a truly meditative space for peace and reflection.
Cottage Garden
You needn’t take the strikingly-minimalist zen-garden path in order to create a calming garden space. There are a great many inspirational aesthetics right here on English soil, the most popular of which is perhaps the cottage garden aesthetic. This is a charming, informal garden approach, that embraces unbridled growth and maximalist colour over all.
Colourful flowers are the statement-making flora of a good cottage garden, so a great deal of flower bulbs for your hangers and planters would be a good start. Cottage gardens can also be somewhat practical, so don’t be afraid to make space for herbs and veg. Between your vegetation, winding pathways and raised seating areas can help improve the denseness and cosiness of your garden.
Modern/Contemporary Garden
The other side of the coin, at least with respect to the English garden, comes in the form of the modern. Modern gardens eschew the romantic maximalism of the poorly-tended flower bush for clean lines, sharp edges and geometric precision. Colour is used sparingly but to great effect, much in the same way a coloured feature wall in a room comes to define it. Splashes of colour from small, well-maintained beds excite the space, which otherwise focuses the eye on form and cleanliness. A water feature could bring everything together, to a sophisticated, orderly, and distinctly modern finish.
