Considerations for a practical garden

A great design, whether that’s a beautiful building, an iconic household gadget or a delightful garden, often seems effortless, simple, even timeless - it feels perfectly attuned to its surroundings. Of course, designing a garden like this is anything but simple, it takes a great deal of thought and a keen eye for beautiful design. But to work well for you, it needs to be more than beautiful; your outdoor space needs to function as a practical garden.

Our previous post discussed the five key questions to consider before your garden design consultation. In this blog we want to delve a little deeper and start looking at the practical considerations that we need to take into account when we’re designing your garden.

For a garden to work perfectly for you, we need to really think about how you will use the garden and to factor in all those little things that make a real difference to how you will use the space. That’s why we take the time to understand your needs. We work with you to create a thorough client brief that encapsulates all those details to get it just right.

Here are just three of our key practical considerations:

Maintaining your garden

It might seem back to front but understanding how you’re going to maintain your garden once it’s constructed is crucial if the garden is going to stay looking its best for the foreseeable future. Do you want to invest money on employing a professional gardener, or are you going to do it yourself? If yourself, how many hours do you intend to spend working in the garden each week? Are there any tasks that you struggle with? Knowing this will ensure that we can design a garden for you that is a pleasure to maintain.

Garden structures

It’s long been said that a garden adds another room to your home. Particularly during the recent lockdown, we have seen increasing numbers literally add an extra room by incorporating an outdoor office or gym in their garden design. These buildings can often dominate the space if they are not sensitively incorporated but can make a real difference to how we live our lives; offering a practical space for the family to make use of.  If designed into the scheme from the outset, we can integrate the building seamlessly into the space.

The working garden

A garden is often not just a place for relaxing and entertaining - we often use our garden for practical purposes too. Many of us will dry our clothes in the fresh air, we may compost our kitchen waste, we care for our gardens using tools and machinery. If this goes for you too, then we need to consider where to place all these items so that you have easy access to everything you need. If you have a garden sofa for instance, then having storage for cushions close at hand will make the space more enjoyable and you are far more likely to make regular use of the lounge area.

These practical considerations might not sound hugely inspiring but behind every beautiful design is a designer who has considered them all and created a space that blends both the aesthetic and the functional.

Before embarking on your garden design journey, let’s discuss all those finer details that will make your garden not just beautiful but practical too. If you’re ready to discuss your project with us, why not get in touch. We’re always here to help your project get off to a flying start and make sure that you’ve thought of everything.