![]() Pictured: an Oxfordshire garden by Angel Collins, where hedges have been planted diagonally to create a sense of width in a narrow space.īuild on the good points of the garden. Farrow & Ball’s ' String' is a good one, and I also like the darker ' Downpipe' for garden gates.įences come in all different shapes and sizes and don't necessarily have to block off views a decorative fence can allow you to still see through to the landscape beyond. If your garden is shady, then paint your gate in a light cream colour. Gates make excellent stopping points and the more decorative the better. Rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' is a good rose for an arch as the flowers hang down. A good height for an arch is 2.4m with a minimum width of 2m. You can also have an arch with a trained crab apple tree each side to create an apple bower. Arches add romance to a garden, especially if you grow roses up them. ![]() Other structural elements can be particularly decorative. With small gardens, sometimes you can make your garden feel bigger by cutting off the view of most of the garden using hedges or fences, but using a mirror at the end to make the garden appear longer. If your garden slopes up away from the house, it might be better to have an open view of the garden, but with shorter divisions such as retaining walls and low hedging. The division can be a wall or a hedge, and it will probably also act as a windbreak. You can then create another 'room' which might open up to the countryside. In larger gardens, if your garden slopes downwards, a good idea is to make the most of the slope by adding a dividing line where the level changes. Rugosa and other roses make beautiful hedges too. If you prefer a deciduous hedge, then hornbeam is good on clay soils and beech on lighter soils. It also likes to be fed in the winter so feed it throughout the year and you will have a good hedge within 3-4 years. Yew needs good drainage so plant it very carefully and if you are on heavy soil you would need to backfill the planting hole with at least 200mm of grit. If your garden requires a tall hedge, you need to decide whether it will be evergreen, in which case yew is a wonderful choice. Try to avoid clutter by just incorporating three or five really good elements from the above list. Are you going to have a hedge, a fence, arches, gates, sculpture, containers, or topiary? If your garden is small, think less is more. Once you have decided where you are going to sit and relax in your garden, you need to think about structure. Pictured: a country garden by Angel Collins
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