Bright IDEAS
The best-loved gardens, regardless of size, style or purpose, improve the lives of their owners, and the most appealing unfold as a series of changing pictures in which features and furnishings, foliage and flowers are woven into a fully integrated layout. When many gardens have to serve multiple purposes, a good starting point is to list these, ensuring practicalities are included on a master plan that reflects how you intend to use your garden.
Work out a rough budget and consider carrying out the work in carefully planned stages. Making the most of what is already there is a good way to cut costs, so write a list of pros and cons, looking at the negatives, and working out possible solutions. An ugly permanent feature can be disguised, whereas eyesores beyond your boundaries may be hidden behind a tree or trellis panels of climbing plants.
As gardens become smaller, every surface – horizontal and vertical – has potential for growing plants. Walls can be ‘greened up’ with suspended containers, or a
