Are you looking for garden ideas for a difficult part of your garden?
Maybe you’ve changed the way you use the space or something needs replacing, like a dead tree or a rotting shed?
Or would you just like more of a wow factor as you walk out the back door or look out the window?
Garden designers would advise you to consider your garden as a whole. And, of course, they are right.
But unless you have the budget to renovate your entire garden, most of us tend to restore our garden bit by bit.
This is a two-part post. In this first part, I’ll look at ideas for the area closest to the house, as you see it when you look out the window or out the back door.
The second part will deal with garden ideas for difficult corners and neglected areas.
Garden ideas for the outdoor space closest to the house
One tried and tested tip for garden design is to have neater, more formal or structured spaces near the house.
Then, even if you have a fairly small garden, you can change the feel, with wilder or more open areas away from the house. That’s what we decided to do.
We have divided our garden into a formal, structured zone – which we call the parterre – near the house. Then the back of the garden is more open and wild.
When we moved in, the garden was sloping, so we decided to create a formally cut lawn that we call parterre. It is divided into four with paths that reflect the four rooms on the ground floor of the house.
Another good design tip is to echo the materials of the house or architectural features near the house.
In this garden, designed by Posy Gentles, the color of the fence echoes the color of the window, and the pale panels reflect the interior floor. See more about this garden in How to Design a Shallow Wide Garden.
Remember the principle of mass v void
One of the most fundamental principles of garden design is that you need a balance of mass and void.
This means balancing flat surfaces, such as lawns, patios and paths, with three-dimensional elements such as trees, shrubs, sheds and pergolas.
You can learn more about this in the principles of garden design.
When we first landscaped the garden, which was almost 15 years ago, an artist friend said he thought we should add height in the middle. He suggested a pergola, but when we researched them, the ones we liked were out of our budget. And we didn’t really like the ones we could afford!
…and the principle of time versus money
This brings me to something I have noticed in garden design – there is a direct correlation between time and money. If you want an instant transformation, it will probably cost you.
It is cheaper to grow plants from seed or propagate, but it will take longer. And the only way to make landscaping cheaper is to do your own walls, paths and patios, which means taking the time to learn how to do it right.
If you want to find just the right pergola, gazebo or piece of patio furniture, it will usually take you a long time to find one you love at a price you can afford. But if you keep an eye on classifieds sites, social media auction sites, and generally around friends, you may be able to find something special for less. Here are some tips on 15 ways to transform your garden with recycled waste.
This is why the cost of gardening TV programs is so wrong. They usually do not cost a labor element or some other factor. Most garden designers say you should multiply the budgets on TV garden makeover programs by at least 4! Check out this post for real ideas on how to save money on landscaping.
Garden ideas for the central area
So we couldn’t leave our ground floor empty while we searched for the perfect pergola. Here are some of our options, plus a few other ideas.
- Planting – Trees, shrubs and other plantings add mass for relatively little money.
- Pots – In the center we added a group of pots, filled with easy, long-flowering Nepeta
- One striking pot. We bought a large topiary spiral which was a big investment (around £120, probably more now)
- You can add a sculpture
- Central pond
- Central mini pond
- In the middle
- Way down the middle (but think about the overall mass/void problem.).
- Seating area
- Trees in the middle of the garden
Three Solutions for ‘Mass vs Void’
This space (2012) is clearly too much ‘void’ (flat area) and not enough ‘mass’. The small plants you can see have grown into large lavender plants after a year. The pots provide the only real ‘mass’, but they still look small in the space.
Since 2015, we have placed a large topiary spiral in the center, with herbs in the other pots. Lavender also grew to add mass. We kept our lavender in shape by pruning it back heavily (see how to prune English lavender nicely).
From 2019-2022 we had a sundial in the middle with large beds of lavender providing most of the ‘mass’.
We finally found a second hand vintage pergola that we liked and it is now installed, adding height and ‘mass’ to the center of the garden. Planting follows!
More garden ideas
Add a small or large pond to the center of your garden. Always consider a pond approach – a ground pond can be dangerous for babies and small children, while a raised pond can be difficult for wildlife to access. However, you can screen ponds and help wildlife in a variety of ways (see how to build a container pond).
We are often warned not to place a central path in the middle of the garden or lawn as it can simply divide the garden in two without adding anything. But if you’re generous with both the path and the planting on either side, it can work well. Just remember the principles of mass and void – these show gardens from RHS Chelsea Flower Show (above) and RHS Hampton Court wouldn’t look so good if there was lawn on either side of the path.
In a small garden, the central part can be used for seating. It is common for the seating area to be located directly outside the back of the house, but the center of the garden can also be a good place for it, especially in smaller gardens. Charlotte Rowe advises thinking about different seating areas in 5 garden design tips.
A fountain forms the formal center of a garden as with this ‘Charleston Garden’ at the RHS Hampton Court Show. See this and more garden ideas in this RHS Hampton Court.
Add a tree or trees to the center of your garden. This shallow wide garden, designed by Posy Gentles, has two fruit trees that break up the middle of the space. See how this works in designing a wide, shallow garden.
You can see more details about these garden ideas for our central parterre and other ideas in this video here.
Pin to remember beautiful garden ideas for different parts of the garden
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