Back to the Garden

May is the month when the attention of many turns to that most English of pursuits: gardening.  In 18 days’ time, royalty, celebrities and amateur enthusiasts will be dressing up and heading for Chelsea, where the annual Flower Show is generally seen as a barometer of cutting-edge garden trends. 

Much as in the fashion world, where the more ‘out-there’ ideas seen on the catwalk are toned down before being turned into clothes that people will actually wear, so we must take some of the more outlandish displays at Chelsea with the requisite pinch of salt.  But for those of us creating new homes for real people to live in, we ignore the importance of the outside space at our peril. 

Social trends have a huge influence on what is outside our back doors.  In the post-war years of austerity, growing food was an imperative, and pretty much every home had a vegetable patch.  Then, as food became more plentiful, gardening became a leisure activity in its own right, and people had the time and the money to turn their gardens into riots of floral colour. 

Alan Titchmarsh and his ilk took a lot of flak from traditional gardeners for promoting the idea of gardens as an outside living space rather than just a place to grow plants, but all he was doing was reflecting a trend which continues to this day: in an era when people are time-poor, more and more want to spend their leisure time enjoying their gardens, not working in them. 

That means designing gardens which are easy to maintain, which can be used for longer in the year than just the summer, and which create a seamless extension of the inside space. 

In years gone by, when designing new homes, the garden was often a bit of an after-thought; there had to be one, but we paid much less attention to its role in how ‘liveable’ the new home would be than we do today.  Nowadays we are far more aware of how people will use every inch of the plot, not just the building itself. 

Of course, everyone is different, and there will always be keen gardeners who will happily spend every non-rainy day planting, pruning and weeding.  Conversely, there will be those who will happily create a maintenance-free courtyard garden, with few plants at all. 

So what are the things we try to achieve when planning how the garden will interact with the rest of a new home?  First, there must be an all-weather place for people to sit, preferably next to the house, forming an extension of the indoor living space (so large patio doors play a part where possible).  That space should lend itself to entertaining, with space for a barbecue and/or outside dining. 

Secondly, most people want a lawn.  I think this is a peculiarly British thing, but we all like to look out at a patch of green.  Third, flower beds should be manageable in size, to cut down on the amount of weeding necessary.  And increasingly, we are having to take into account efficient water use in gardens. 

As with any aspect of creating a new home, the key is that concept of ‘liveability’.  Without this, it’s  not a home, just some bricks and a yard.