Small Garden Design Course - how to start
An introduction to how to design your garden - however large or small it is. Plus: competition winners, a Garden Digestif, and Meetings are back.
As there are lots of images, this may be too long for email - don’t worry, it isn’t an endless read in itself! - so please do have a look at it in your browser/app instead
It’s February - and it’s a bumper-beginning-of-the-month February edition. So get that cup of tea or coffee ready, and curl up with The Gardening Mind:
If you’re a new subscriber, a huge welcome to you. The Gardening Mind community is a truly wide-ranging one, not just geographically, but also in terms of interest and experience. We’re made up of readers new to gardening, people who have gardened pretty much forever, professionals, amateurs, second-careerers and people who are thinking about dipping a toe or two into the wonderful world of gardens and gardening. I promise you, it really is a wonderful world. I absolutely love how you’re all so supportive of each other here on The Gardening Mind - thank you, and long may it continue. If you’re a paid subscriber, thank you so much for taking that step - it’s because of you that I can write The Gardening Mind each week. Without you, it wouldn’t be here and that’s the absolute truth.
If you’re new, you might be wondering how to find your way around The Gardening Mind: I hold regular Zooms where I show you round, so look out for the next one which is taking place in a couple of weeks’ time. If you’re thinking about taking part in the Small Garden Design series which starts right here this week, you may well have a few questions about how to participate - please don’t panic: I’ll be with you every step of the way. It’s going to be fun as well as informative - we had a lot of fun last time, sharing and discussing ideas, and this year is going to be even more so!
Never be scared to ask a question: you’ve landed in the friendliest gardening community ever.
New - a monthly Garden Digestif
January was a busy old month here, and I know many of you like to save up articles to read them, so I thought I’d create a kind of Gardening Mind Digestif (that was an autocorrect of ‘Digest’ but it made me smile and so I decided to keep it) of some of the month’s highlights for you in case you missed them.
In the How to Garden series, I created for you a couple of foolproof recipes for a flowerbed, and we’ve also had a garden design lesson in creating romantic gardens. We looked at how to garden in January, and we also continued our ongoing gardening clothes conversation with ever more excellent, tried, tested and trusted suggestions from you.
There was a wild moment when I suggested sharing the whole process of designing a show garden with you, and we’ve had a Zoom about this too, where I divulged lots of secrets and all the risks we’ve taken with this show garden - watch out for an update on this harebrained scheme next week. There was also the regular What’s on your Gardening Mind - Ask Me Anything session - as ever, no question was too silly, so do get your pressing garden-related questions ready for our next very own Gardener’s Question Time.
In Where to start with your garden design, we went right back to basics, to a really important area that’s often forgotten in garden design. And then we finished off the month on the complete high of a fascinating tour through India Knight’s garden story - if you haven’t managed to catch up with it yet, you really do have something to look forward to.
And our Sunday Show Us Your Plots Chats continue - this is where we all post honest and unfiltered photos of what’s going on in our green space - whether it’s a window box, a courtyard, a doorstep, a community garden or a big old field. Look for the speech bubble icon, and come and join in - we’d love to see you there. There’s an explanation on how to do this later in this post.
We’re going to have a Chit-along where we grow our potatoes together - watch out for more!
We also have a book winner: my second-hand copy of The Making of an English Country Garden, by Deborah Kellaway, will be heading its way towards Adam Carter. And don’t forget our read-along of The Education of a Gardener by Russell Page, which will also be starting soon. I know! It all seems like A LOT, but I’ll spread all of these things out, and I’d say this book is really valuable reading for anyone who is considering a career in garden design. On this subject, I’ve released a couple more dates for one-to-one mentoring sessions, so if you have anything you’d like to discuss in more depth, eg your own garden design, career questions, gardening queries, head here. There are only a few, and these are the last ones till March - I just can’t fit any more in!
Which reminds me:
A little Latin lesson which I promise I’d try to make fun - it could be really boring - or it could be helpful… do let me know in the poll above. While you’re at it, did you notice the lovely illustration by Imogen Partridge? She’s incredibly talented and I’m looking forward to sharing more of her work in future.
So, shall we begin? Let’s look at how to design your garden
A subscriber last week wrote to say that The Gardening Mind is “full of personality, atmosphere and originality”, and whilst I’m totally flattered whilst at the same time really hoping that you don’t think I’m blowing my own trumpet1, I did actually think that this description was completely relevant to this garden design course. Anyone who’s taken part in this garden design course before will know that I try my absolute utmost to go beyond the text books in order to give you a real and honest, and original, introduction to garden design. It would be easy for me to ‘lift’ the garden design process from a how-to book, but as ever, I commit to giving you something that you can’t find elsewhere: burrowing deep into the heart of garden design, and getting under the skin of my own process, so to speak. This way, you’ll end up with a result that is a garden with personality, atmosphere and originality, something that really is truly personal. Something you’re not going to find anywhere else. I’m sharing with you how I go about designing a garden, and giving you that truly personal insight.
Before we kick off, here are some of the highlights from last year in case you want to get ahead: I’ll be adding new material, and for previous participants, we’re looking at a totally new garden. So something really meaty to get our teeth into. As happened last year, this will be backed up by Zooms, and also by Chat - I’ll be running a weekly Chat for you to upload your ideas to share with each other and so that we can all discuss and comment. I’ll explain the process of this in a moment.
Last time:
Here are some of the highlights of last year’s garden design sessions, where I take you from the very beginning of the garden design process, through to the finished item. And of course there are all the case studies for larger garden design, which I’ll be directing you towards another time. I want you to be excited and not overwhelmed: you can go at any pace you like, and I’ll be here to talk to and to answer questions. You don’t have to read any of them, as I’ll be going through all the ideas and learning points gradually using a different garden as my example. Don’t rush, take your time and enjoy.
So last year, after an introduction to design, in this post we looked at some key basics: the location of the garden, the importance of taking in your surroundings, and how to identify useful features:
That was followed by taking a deep-dive into what lies beyond:
We took a great big leap into drawing up plans:
And we looked at the really important notion of the journey around your garden:
Much to my surprise, this next post went down really well: in it, we looked at how to decipher a garden design plan. I explained how to read and understand one of these plans and how to understand the language and symbols designers use:
As I say, you really don’t have to read any of these above, as we’re going to take a whole new look at a whole new garden. It’s better if you take things slowly, as I want you to enjoy the process. But I know some of you do like a library to cross-reference and rabbit holes to burrow down….
I love the fact that last time many of you started designs for your chosen spots; some of you finished them; some of you even started implementing your ideas. And, some of you were actually inspired to delve further into the industry and have started or signed up for professional training in garden design. I can’t tell you just how happy all of the above makes me.
I had a realisation, as I looked along the now-visible neighbouring rooftops, that there was a whole other life going on up here, with flowerpots and tables and sunloungers scattered down this street in the sky.
As we’ve discussed previously, this course is relevant for any sized garden. You may have a tiny garden, or you may have a smaller space that needs dealing with in a bigger garden. Small garden spaces are very dear to my heart: it’s how I started off in garden design nearly 30 years ago, creating the tiniest and therefore trickiest of gardens, and this continues to be something I love to do. So when a prospective client calls and describes their “impossible dank and shady courtyard which we’re desperate to turn into an outdoor room; we’d love you to help us but maybe you don’t design small gardens”, you can guess what my answer is:
“Size doesn’t matter”.
The size of your outside space doesn’t matter. You have it, you can do something with it and it’ll make your life better. It really will.
So fasten your seatbelts: we’re going on a journey through garden design: