Certificate In Garden Design

Sculpture
A well-placed sculpture is probably the easiest way to create a focal point in the garden. The classical designs have an enduring appeal, and there are many excellent reproductions available. A popular trend is the use of Roman and Greek-style classical columns. The taller columns are used as a decorative feature in their own right, often placed against a wall, while the shorter ones can be used as a plinth for an urn or sculpture.

Contemporary sculptures work well in the minimalist garden or courtyard. Designs are often abstract or eclectic and may be geometric in form, crafted from metal, plastics, fibreglass and other refined materials not usually used in the garden.

For maximum impact, make sure the sculpture has plenty of room around it. Don’t crowd it with a mass of different plants and textures. If you do want to include some greenery for a softening effect, use uniform plantings, either as massed ground-covers around the base or a hedge or wall of neatly clipped climber behind the sculpture.

Walls
In a small courtyard, bare walls are the most dominant feature. Generally, the tendency is to make the walls disappear behind a screen of climbers and shrubs. However, there are some pretty exciting things you can do to walls:

• Paint a wall a single colour - not only does it make an interesting backdrop, but a painted wall changes the mood of the garden depending on the colours used. Hot colours (reds, yellows, pinks) make the whole garden feel warmer, more vibrant and active. Cool colours (greens, blues) are more restful and cool the garden down (psychologically). Dark colours give a feeling of enclosure and intimacy whereas light colours open the area up.
• Paint a trompe l’oeil on a wall. A trompe l’oeil is an illusion, a painted scene designed to deceive the eye. It gives a quirky, humorous touch to the garden, and makes the garden appear larger than it really is.
• Cover the wall with panels of decorative trellis or latticework.
• Create niches (shallow recesses) in the wall to display urns, busts or small sculptures. Niches tend to give the garden or courtyard a formal, classical look.
• Place a decorative gate in the wall, perhaps aligned with a fountain, ornament or the main doors of the house, to create an axis. A plain solid gate set in a high wall gives the garden a sense of intrigue - a secret retreat from the outside world, and it teases the mind about what may lie beyond the door.

Mirrors
One of the cleverest tricks for small outdoor areas is using a mirror placed on a wall. The mirror catches and reflects light and thereby ‘extends’ the view giving the illusion that the garden is bigger than it really is.

Where to Place a Mirror
• Behind a pond, to catch the movement and play of light on water.
• At the end of an axis, such as path, to give the illusion of extra length.
• Against a dark wall, with some light-coloured plants in front of, and below it, to give a feeling of lightness and space
• Behind a statue, allowing you to see it from all angles.

It is important to use a good quality mirror with a good backing, as the backing will soon peel off cheaper mirrors when they are exposed to the weather. You can buy purpose-made outdoor mirrors. All mirrors, of course, are at risk of being broken - but if they are placed in a location that is obscure, perhaps partially protected from severe storms, weather extremes, and away from where children play ball games, then the likelihood of breakage is significantly reduced.

Water
Most professional designers consider that water is an essential component of the garden - and for good reason. Water adds an extra dimension to the garden bringing movement, sound, and a sense of coolness which is both psychological and real.

The water feature doesn’t have to be elaborate to create an impact. Generally, simple water features work better in small spaces. Some of the most effective water features are based on geometric designs including: circular or rectangular pools set in ground-level paving, raised rectangular water channels, and spheres with bubbling water.

For a real sense of drama a water wall is hard to beat - with water cascading over the wall in a smooth sheet, or catching and splashing over bowls or receptacles embedded in the wall, or spouting from wall jets. Underwater lights add a further exciting dimension to the garden at night.

BORROW YOUR NEIGHBOURS LANDSCAPE TO MAKE YOUR GARDEN SEEM LARGER
Small gardens don’t always need to seem small: after all, big gardens are often simply made up of lots of small garden areas linked together. The trick is to make it seem like your neighbour’s garden is simply the next section of your own garden.

1) Take stock – look at the gardens backing onto your property. Consider their features that can be seen from your garden e.g. walls, pergolas covered with climbers, large trees, and so on.

2) Consider the things that are separating your garden from the surrounding gardens such as fences, buildings etc.

3) Work out how to hide the features that separate your garden from your neighbours using plants and trellis screens.

4) Use visual tricks to extend the garden and link it with the surrounding properties.

Use Plants to Screen the Boundaries
The idea is to make your garden look bigger than it is.  Fences, walls, garden sheds or other man-made objects in the line of view will quickly shatter that illusion. The solution is to plant shrubs and climbers so that they screen the boundaries and hide unsightly features, but without drawing undue attention to the boundaries.

Don’t place plants in a solid line along the fence – this will only draw the eye to the boundary, creating a sense of enclosure. Instead, plant shrubs of varying heights in small groups in front of the fence, so that you look out onto foliage that merges with taller trees and shrubs behind the fence.

Allow climbers such as Wisteria sinensis, Rosa filipes ‘Kiftskate’, Bougainvillea sp., Clematis montana and Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ to spread through trees and large shrubs from one garden to another, so that their flowers disappear into the distance. 

Other Ways to ‘Enlarge’ the Boundaries
• Paint the fence or wall a dull, muted colour – grey or dull green.
• Remove your back fence if it goes onto parkland or farmland.
• Install a gateway or arch that leads into your neighbours garden (providing of course that you are on good terms).
• If possible, cut peepholes in the fence or foliage so you can see beyond your garden (this may be easier if you are adjacent to a reserve).
• Don’t remove overhanging branches from trees, shrubs, or climbers that come from your neighbour’s garden.  Doing this will only accentuate the border between yourself and your neighbours.
• Position benches and seats where you can see beyond your own garden.
Tricks that Landscape Designers Use
• Install a trompe l’oeil trellis screen framing an image or a mirror to give an illusion that the garden extends through the wall. 
• Use mirrors elsewhere to create illusions.  For example, if you submerge a mirror at either end of a narrow pond that bisects your garden, it will look as though you have a continuous stream running through your garden.  If you place a mirror inside an archway towards the end of the garden so that it reflects foliage, it will look as though the garden continues beyond the boundary. 
• Use murals to create the illusion of a garden gate or archway on a garden wall.
• Paint foliage onto a garden wall that resembles the existing visible foliage at the end of your own garden, or that of a neighbour’s garden that backs on to yours.  This will create continuity between the gardens.
• Create the start of a pathway leading into next door’s garden but hide the fact that as you turn the corner, it hits a brick wall.
• Use similar plants to your neighbours’ so that it ties your garden in with theirs.
• If you live in a terraced house or semi-detached house, encourage climbing plants on the back of your neighbours’ or your own house to grow on both, or several, properties.
• Install a pergola that extends from one garden into another.

BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN
You can make a garden seem bigger by creating the illusion that something beyond the garden is within your property. Alternatively, you can make the garden seem as though it is inside the house.

How to Extend Your Garden
• Knock out a wall of the house and put in a big window.

• Cut plants back from windows so you can see out - maximise your ability to see the garden from the house. 

• Redevelop the garden - prune, plant, etc to create vistas from the house. 

• Position features in the garden (fountain, statue, trompe l’oeil, mirror etc) that can be seen better or with more effect from inside the house.

• Remove curtains, replace frosted glass to improve view outside, and then build a fence outside to maintain privacy.

• Think about having a shower or bath and being able to look straight into the garden – it can be a great feeling, as long as people walking down the street can’t see in as easily as you can see out!

• Add garden lighting outside so that the garden looks a picture at night.

• Place plants with large leaves in the foreground and plants with small leaves in the background.  This will create the illusion of depth. 

• The illusion of depth can also be created by having light coloured foliage in the foreground and dark foliage as a backdrop. 

• Create the illusion that your neighbour’s trees are part of your garden – plant shrubs on your side to camouflage the fence and merge with the foliage in your neighbour’s garden.

• Frame an attractive view such as a distant mountain with an arch, pergola or trees. This draws the eye beyond the immediate garden.

Deciding How to Extend Your Garden
Think about the type of room and the type of view you get from that room:

• What outside view do you want to be looking at when you are eating a meal, lying in bed, sitting at a desk, etc?

• How does the colour scheme in the room fit with the view from that room?