Putting your Stamp on a Garden
As a garden designer, to me the most beautiful gardens are those infused with the personalities of the owners. Usually, there are layers put into place by the previous owners too, and developing the garden is a kind of elaboration on existing patterns and themes.
That having been said, a garden definitely doesn’t stand still so change always needs to be embraced. Plants become old and need replacing, light levels change due to growing trees etc and lifestyle patterns alter over the generations.
Image: The dusky pink colour scheme in this garden was taken from a beautiful established ornamental cherry tree
Where possible, it’s good to use existing features, but often we need to make the big decisions to properly update the garden. Often the building of large new features will prompt these these changes and they need to be done confidently in order to be successful; using a garden designer can come in handy in these cases. A garden usually benefits from a strong concept rather than just being the result of haphazard decisions made in the moment.
Sometimes the changes are smaller and are more questions of taste. Again, confidence is key here. For example, changing a white and blue scheme by adding yellow would work brilliantly, but the yellow would need to be repeated enough to reinforce the effect and make it look purposeful.
Due to the busier lifestyles and smaller gardens of the last couple of decades, the nursery industry has responded by selecting and developing plant cultivars which stay compact and perform well without too much additional pruning and maintenance; so much of the unnecessary work in older gardens is due to inappropriate plant choice so this is often another focus of a garden update.
There is so much about garden design which is personal preference; privacy, colour, style etc. There is certainly logic in waiting until you have settled into a new house before updating the garden, but don’t forget that a garden takes time to grow, so get started on making the changes to tailor it to you and your family.
Happy gardening,
Landscape Designer Kaz Krasovskis
Insta: @kazkrasovskis
www.kazkrasovskis.com.au