Mo and her partner have a beautiful garden backing onto a golf course, with a generous plot and wonderful views. However, uneven ground, large overhanging trees and very little planting meant the space felt quite bare, with the eye naturally drawn to its less attractive features.

They wanted to transform the garden into something that felt more inviting, colourful and full of life, and we were delighted to help.

Mo invited Paul and Claire from Root & Bloom to create a planting scheme that would completely reimagine the space. We designed a detailed planting plan centred around two large raised beds, expertly built by our talented Root & Bloom partner, Jon Mott. These were then filled with rich, layered planting to provide structure, texture and year-round interest and further enhanced with fence line beds, and planting around a refurbished summer house.

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Garden Design & Planting in Wokingham: From Empty Space to Somewhere You Want to Sit

There’s a big difference between having a garden and having a garden you actually want to be in.

This recent garden design and planting project near Wokingham, Berkshire is a perfect example.

Mo already had plenty of space. A good-sized lawn, mature trees, a lovely open outlook and an established garden.

But one section in particular just wasn’t doing anything.

It was essentially:

grass… fence… done.

Your eye travelled straight through it. There was very little depth, colour or softness and, despite having lots of space, there wasn’t much reason to wander down there and stay.

So the brief wasn’t really:

“Can you put some plants in?”

It was:

“Can we make this part of the garden feel like somewhere?”

And that’s where good garden design and planting design can completely change a space.

Garden design starts with structure

The biggest transformation actually happened before a single plant went into the ground.

Two substantial timber raised beds were created to give this part of the garden definition, height and purpose.

Suddenly we had boundaries.

We had somewhere for the eye to stop.

And because the timber tops are wide enough to sit on, we’d accidentally created something else rather lovely:

a place to be.

That’s important.

Good garden design isn’t simply about creating something attractive from the kitchen window. It’s about thinking how you’re actually going to use your outdoor space.

Walk down.

Sit.

Have a coffee.

Read.

Talk.

Do absolutely nothing for ten minutes.

Gardens should make you want to linger.

Then came the planting design

This is where the fun starts.

Rather than simply filling the new flower beds with lots of individually pretty plants, we created a layered planting scheme designed to work as a whole.

That means thinking about height, colour, texture, flowering periods and how plants will mature.

At the back, taller plants create height and help soften that enormous expanse of fencing.

In the middle, shrubs and flowering perennials provide the body of the planting.

Towards the front, lower-growing plants begin to spill towards the timber edge and knit everything together.

We’ve mixed foliage shapes and shades of green, silver, burgundy and variegated leaves so there’s interest even when individual plants aren’t flowering.

Then the flowers provide the fireworks.

Purples.

Whites.

Little splashes of red.

Movement.

Bees.

Butterflies.

Life.

That’s the difference between simply buying some plants and creating a considered garden planting plan.

A planting plan isn’t really about today

This is one of the fascinating things about planting design.

You aren’t designing solely for the afternoon the plants go into the ground.

You’re imagining:

Next spring.

Next summer.

Three years from now.

What gets bigger?

What flowers when?

What happens when that plant finishes?

What fills the gap?

What gives us height?

What remains evergreen?

Where does your eye travel?

It’s horticulture with a little crystal-ball gazing thrown in.

And occasionally Mother Nature completely ignores your carefully considered garden planting plan anyway.

Keeps us humble.

But look at how the garden FEELS now

This is my favourite part.

The lawn hasn’t fundamentally changed.

The fences are still there.

The trees are still there.

The dimensions of the garden haven’t changed by a millimetre.

But the experience of being in it has.

Before, you walked past this area.

Now you walk towards it.

There’s colour drawing you down the garden.

There’s movement.

There are flowers to inspect.

There are little details you don’t notice until you’re close.

And when you get there…

you can sit amongst it.

That’s the magic bit for me.

Mo isn’t sitting outside a flowerbed looking at it.

She’s sitting in the garden.

Surrounded by plants rather than viewing them from twenty feet away.

And suddenly an overlooked strip of lawn has become a destination.

Paul & Claire – 

Root and Bloom Designs.

Garden design, planting and garden maintenance around Wokingham and surrounding Berkshire areas

Next up…. the LAWN!