Backyard landscaping ideas how to#
Backyard landscaping ideas full#

'The brief was to create a nectar and edibles-rich haven for people and wildlife that reflects the client’s love of foraging and cooking,' adds Hugo.

Backyard landscaping ideas full#

'As the garden opens to sun, the wildflower meadow-like planting is full of white foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea ‘Dalmatian White’, meadow cranesbill, Geranium ‘Brookside’, and valerian, Valeriana officinalis,' says Charlotte.

Garden designers Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio convinced their clients to lose the lawn in this backyard and rewarded them with sophisticated planting that creates way more atmosphere than cut grass ever could. For family gardens a lawn is often an important element to allow for childhood play, but if it's not then think about replacing it and creating a no-grass backyard, particularly if you have a small or narrow garden. (Image credit: Harris Bugg Studio / Jason Ingram)Ĭonsider if you backyard needs a lawn. 'I have found that specific areas require different treatments to make the most of things like sunny spots and special spaces,' she adds. She embraces its shadiness, calling it a ‘garden of evolution’, and continues to develop the planting since it was reworked about eight years ago. 'We created raised terraces as you go up the garden to maximize our opportunity to capture sun and, seen from the basement, these also give a feeling of a cascade of planting,' says Emily.

Backyard landscaping ideas how to#

There are different factors to consider in how to design a sloping garden. In many ways this has been its success,' says Emily. 'A tall wall on the back elevation makes it feel very private and enclosed, and now I have some quite tall structures in there it creates an even greater contrast between light and shade. Its setting means it is naturally fairly shady. There are many plants and shrubs for shade that can create a feeling quite distinct from sunnier areas of the garden.Īward-winning landscape designer Emily Erlam has created this, her own, small garden from a long narrow space behind her house. (Image credit: Emily Erlam Studio / Eva Nemeth)ĭevelop different planting between light and shaded areas for a garden of contrasts. 'Much thought was given to the walls – they are very tall so we used many contrasting tall evergreen shrubs and evergreen climbers to counteract this.' 3. 'It was a very constrained site – we needed to make it feel lighter and bigger than it was,' continues Jane. Jane’s aim was to make the space ‘full of shimmery light and texture,’ so she decided to dig out the whole garden to the new basement level, including underpinning all the walls, placing planting in newly created beds at lower levels. 'It was quite a challenge,' recalls Jane, about the space at the rear of a terraced Victorian house. Landscape designer Jane Brockbank had to fulfil her client’s brief of creating ‘a beautiful 'green' picture that would be the constant visual backdrop to the main family kitchen/dining room.' If you're wondering how to add luxury to a backyard, then careful choice of planting is one way When it comes to small backyard ideas, you can make a real impact and create a sense of more space by filling the area with light and texture through careful planting.