Designing a New Build Garden
It is one of the facts of moving into a new build that the garden you are left with is likely to be turfed, maybe with a small amount of poor-quality paving at best, and really not an area you can enjoy or want to spend time in. Which is a real shame, considering you have just bought your new home, of which you are proud.
However, on the plus side, it is also a blank canvas offering the opportunity to create an amazing garden in the style you want, whether cottage garden, contemporary minimalist, Japanese or rustic, for example, in a fashion that flows from the house style itself, delivering the vibe and feelings you want the garden to evoke.
Where to start with a Garden Design?
It is also likely that you are unsure where to start, confronted with an area like the image below, or how to manage the space and layout, work with any slopes in the ground, overcome an irregularly shaped garden and improve the soil so that turf and plants can thrive. This is where a qualified garden designer can really help save money and time.
Aspects and orientation will need to be considered, where the sun is at different times of the day, whether there are areas that are waterlogged in heavy rain, what the privacy of the site is like, whether it is overlooked, and how we can improve that. Proportions of paths, patios and features need to be factored so the design is carefully balanced within the space available.
It is also a factor in new builds that gardens are not large affairs, as developers add as many properties as they can into the development. Therefore, it is best to focus on 1 or 2 major functions you want to provide, such as entertaining and relaxing. Trying to provide for lots of functions like entertaining, growing your own and a family garden, for example, all in one small space does not really work. Focus on what you want to use the garden for most of the time.
New Build Gardens
A reality of new builds is that the soil is likely not of a great quality with prebuild topsoil stripped away (it’s worth money), leaving behind a compacted clay subsoil, burying some unwanted building debris and waste, all of which make for obstacles to healthy plants and lawn due to poor drainage, root growth barriers, and poor nutrient uptake.
Garden Planting Solutions for New Builds
The solution is to excavate the planned planting areas and remove the debris to at least 45cm, add a new accredited topsoil with a pH close to the subsoil that was already there and add organic matter such as farmyard manure into this topsoil. This helps with soil structure and fertility going forward. Annual mulching will also help keep improving this structure.
It is then important to select the plants that will work in the soil condition your garden enjoys, as well as the light levels, which are often different in various parts of the garden. Again, this is something a garden designer can help with planning, which will save the cost of buying lots of replacement plants for those that were not suitable and died.
You want the planting to help with any screening for privacy – there are lots of small tree options as well as pleached trees for this. This also helps add height to the garden and can distract from the enclosing feeling fences can create. Decorative screening within a garden can also help break up a line of sight and create the feeling of intimate ‘rooms’ within the garden. You can also use solutions like a small water feature to not only add visual interest but also provide some noise masking and improve relaxation.
You want a good structural planting backbone for year-round interest, so we might be looking at a mix of 60% evergreen shrubs, 25% perennials for spring and summer colour, 10% ornamental grasses and 5% for annuals or bulbs. This is just a guide, but it helps provide a good structure.
Garden Maintenance
Finally, another factor to consider is what level of professional garden maintenance you are happy to manage in your new garden. This will impact the materials used for hardscaping – for example, timber decking will need annual treatment – as well as the planting selection. A garden designer should also provide a maintenance schedule for the plants selected, so you know what to do and when.
DP Garden Design Solutions
For further blogs and information on Garden Design & gardening in general, please visit my website at www.dpgardendesign.co.uk. If you have a new build garden or any garden, large or small, and are interested in having it designed, please contact me via the website or email directly at info@dpgardendesign.co.uk. We provide complete design packages and project monitoring through planting plans for new or current beds and borders.
