Your garden can be a place of solitude, a space for entertaining friends, an outdoor kitchen and dining area, a sports field, a lido, a living larder, a meadow, a plantsman’s paradise and most of all a place where memories are made that will last a lifetime. Paul Cook, who heads up our award-winning Design & Landscaping team, shares some of his memories with us ...
Colourful Garden Memories
From a very young age, I remember fondly the long hot summer days playing in our garden with my brother and sister, barbeques, parties with our friends and family, cricket and football on the lawn, riding our bikes, running through the garden sprinkler and spraying each other with the garden hose. Also, the tips of the daffodils poking through the snow in winter before bursting into magnificent bloom in spring, the smell of the gorgeous old roses through the summer, harvesting the pears and apples from the trees in early autumn, and making apple pies with our mother from the apples that we helped to collect.
These memories are so vivid as if only formed yesterday and that is the power that your garden can harness and the reason it could well be the most important room in your house.
The Many Uses of our Outdoor Spaces
The only limit to what can be achieved with your outdoor space is your (or a garden designer’s) imagination.
When I was young our garden was fairly basic; a small concrete patio, some fruit trees and shrub/rose borders with a picket fence, and a lawn through the middle with a stepping stone path. With the wealth of choices now available in paving, garden furniture, plants and trees, outdoor kitchens, garden rooms, lighting and sports equipment, the only limit to what can be achieved with your outdoor space is your (or a garden designer’s) imagination.
If sport is your thing, lawns can be laid with specialist seed mixes to tolerate wear and tear so that you can play football, or croquet, cricket or badminton. Equipment such as sunken or above ground trampolines, swings and climbing frames, even swimming pools, tennis courts and outdoor gyms can all be installed.
For the entertainers, there are terraces or timber decks, large or small, with the choice of materials now available being endless, perhaps a pergola with climbing plants to soften the structure and to shield you from the sun, or alternatively a louvered structure to shelter you from light summer rain.
Outdoor kitchens with grills, side burners, fridges, sinks, stone worktops and even wood-fired pizza ovens will keep the budding chef happy and provide an ideal opportunity to invite around your friends and family. A vegetable garden with a greenhouse, gravel paths and raised oak borders can all provide a living larder full of fresh ingredients for you to cook with throughout the year.
Outdoor lighting can be utilised to extend the use of the garden into the evening and enhance your garden features at night. With the warm white LED fittings now available you can create the feel of more traditional lighting, but with the benefits of long life, safety (they are cool to touch unlike halogen bulbs) and money-saving low energy efficiencies.
Your garden will not be complete without plants and, whether in planters and pots or in perfectly prepared and composted borders, the array available is truly amazing; from trees and shrubs to hedges, to spring bulbs, to groundcover, to topiary, to wildflower meadows. Whatever your preference, as long as the right plant is planted in the right place to its horticultural requirements, you really can achieve spectacular planting that changes throughout the seasons.
Designing your Outdoor Space
Here at Clifton Nurseries, we welcome the opportunity to help you create your own garden memories and achieve the outdoor space you’ve always dreamed of. Our professional garden designers can assist you to ensure your requirements are met and can advise as to materials, equipment, plants and trees and arrange them to maximum effect to create your perfect outdoor sanctuary. If you want to beat the New Year rush and require assistance with designing and building your memories, just contact our friendly team.
Whether you then decide to sit back, cook in your outdoor kitchen, take a swim, bounce on the trampoline, kick a football (and then request it back from your neighbour), have an outdoor lunch, a glass of wine, cut your grass, prune your roses or whatever takes your fancy, your memories are being made and your dreams are coming true - just live them and then live them again whenever you can, because these moments really are special and your memories can last a lifetime!
To speak to one of our garden designers, call us on 01932 833844 during office hours or contact us online.