Turn the Inside Out!

As an extension of your home, the garden can offer a welcome escape, a colourful play area or a sociable party space. Any stylish outside space should reflect your personality, your lifestyle and be a continuation of the interior design within your four walls. Great design flows effortlessly and it is crucial to link the indoors with the outdoors in a useful and convenient way. So, plant your herbs and edibles right outside the kitchen door perhaps, or continue paving tiles in your kitchen out onto the patio for a seamless finish. 

As with the design of interiors, colour trends are a key way to make an impact on your decking, patio or lawn. Look for plants that give you colour throughout the seasons. Co-ordinate plants to create a tonal effect within one particular colour scheme, or plant contrasting flower colours adjacent to each other to add vibrancy, just as you might accessorise a bright sofa with cushions in a complementary or accent colour. 

Garden designer and TV presenter Toby Buckland, owner of Toby Buckland Nurseries based at Powderham Castle in Kenton, certainly knows how to add a bright splash of colour, but warns: “It’s got to pack a punch to maximise on the effect.” This spring/summer season, Toby is noticing a rise in the demand for vivid colours: “Go with positive, bold and vivid magentas and oranges, and use hanging planters so you can put the colour exactly where it will have the biggest impact.” He explains that while easy-to-manage, hanging planters may need regular watering, they are less reliant on the gardener and more protected from snails and slugs, plus they don’t have to look too manicured. 

Toby explains that most people naturally create their own garden style as a result of their shopping habits: “It is common to shop for plants in stages, over the course of a few years, adding to the beds at different times, and this can result in an eclectic look.”

If you’re not sure which combinations to go with, a good way to take your garden design to the next level is to buy a collection of plants – for example, a colour border. “Plant annual bedding plants, such as morning glory, with maroon leaves alongside silver dust for a more dramatic, full effect brimming with blooms,” adds Toby. 

“A big trend in gardening is that we expect more from our plants,” he says. “More than just sitting pretty, plants have multiple uses, whether it is encouraging wildlife or stimulating our senses. For example, it is simple to create a bee border with long-flowering plants such as cat mint, verbenas and heleniums to attract bees that pollinate across a long season.” 

While vegetable plots are functional, they can also look attractive with bright and diverse patterns and colours. Toby is also a big fan of tall grasses that help create a hierarchy, while giving architectural structure, in contrast to a floral backdrop. He continues: “Ornamental grasses may be manmade but they have a long season, are tactile, rustle in the wind, provide seed heads for birds to feed on, and you can cut them up as mulch at the end of the season.” 

Gardening is a wonderful way of connecting with nature and enjoying the outdoors, so embrace it this summer and get creative, just as you would by giving a fresh lick of paint to the living room!

“Go with positive, bold and vivid magentas and oranges, and use hanging planters so you can put the colour exactly where it will have the biggest impact”