Landscaping Tips For Tricky-Shaped Gardens
Landscaping can be a difficult task, but this is made especially more complicated when dealing with tricky-shaped gardens. There is a lot of work required to craft your ideal outdoor space and things can seem impossible when your garden is unconventionally shaped.
Whether you are dealing with uneven plots, awkward corners, or challenging gradients, it may feel as though you will never achieve your dream garden because the land is too complicated. However, this does not have to be the case.
Our experts at Heath Landscapes & Garden Design believe that everyone can achieve the garden they’ve always wanted and work with a range of requirements across Hertfordshire. We provide a range of landscaping and paving services to help bring your vision to life, and our team is on hand to deliver the support you need.
Using our two decades’ worth of experience, we are sharing some of the best landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens so you can craft a perfect outdoor space, no matter what you’re working with.
What Shape Is Your Garden?
Before we can deliver landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens, we first need to understand how tricky the shape of the space is. The shape, layout and composition of your garden will determine what kind of work can take place and inform all other decisions moving forward.
This is why the first step in all our garden design and landscaping services is a site consultation, where our experts get a closer look at the land we’re working with. This is something you can do yourself when making small renovations and will make things easier to manage.
You can perform a visual assessment of your garden to determine the shape of the space and highlight any tricky areas, such as slopes, irregular boundaries or even existing features such as trees, stumps or stones. By doing this, you can highlight the areas that need additional care and consider what professionals may be suitable to aid with this.
Doing this work ahead of implementing our landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens ensures that your efforts will be successful, creating an attractive and healthy space, no matter the shape.
Common Challenges Of Tricky-Shaped Gardens
Over the years, we have worked with a range of clients across Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas. Our team has experience with gardens of all shapes and sizes, meaning we are familiar with the challenges typically posed by tricky-shaped gardens.
During your assessment, you may have noticed issues such as significant slopes, limited space, uneven terrains, and narrow areas. These may seem like issues when it comes to garden design, but there are clever ways that you can maximise every available space in tricky-shaped gardens to create a cohesive design that is not just beautiful or functional.
Based on the challenges your outdoor space poses, the following landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens can be useful:
Slope Management
If your garden has an uneven terrain with slopes, terracing is one of the best landscaping tips we can offer. This is a great way to even out the space and create level areas for planting that will not hinder the design or health of the garden.
By creating terraces, you can have specific zones for new plants and flowers or decorative items based on what you want to do. Paved terraces can be useful for outdoor entertaining or relaxing, whereas raised flower beds can be a great tool to manage the uneven terrain and create safe spaces for new plants.
Alternatively, consider getting retaining walls installed at the depth of the slope to add structure and stability to the garden. By placing terraces or walls in significant spots like this, you can also reduce soil erosion while also enhancing the garden’s overall appearance.
Small And Narrow Spaces
Tricky-shaped gardens can be any size, but it is likely that there are narrow areas within your garden that you do not know what to do with. Whatever the case may be, there are several ways you can maximise the space in your garden and make great use out of even the smallest areas.
One such landscaping tip is to use mirrors across small gardens or in the narrow areas. These open up the space, drawing in more light and creating the illusion of more space. Outdoor mirror can be incredibly fashionable and there are many options out there to suit all styles.
Likewise, using furniture that can be easily moved or stored when not in use is the best when dealing with small, tricky-shaped gardens. By having flexible furniture like this, you can still host gatherings or enjoy a peaceful sunny afternoon in your garden, without having to compromise on space.
Furniture, such as folding chairs and tables, can be used on demand and put away at the end of the event so you are not wasting any valuable space.
Various Microclimates
It is common for tricky-shaped gardens to have microclimates, as each area of the garden experiences different soil, light, and watering conditions. Microclimates can seem difficult to manage at first, but they do not have to hinder your garden design.
Being aware of what microclimates are present in your garden and where they are is vital to creating a vibrant, healthy environment. Understanding the conditions of each microclimate allows you to make informed decisions about the plants, flowers or even decorative items that can be installed here.
Consider plants such as evergreen shrubs, succulents, and even deciduous trees which will offer interest to the garden in all seasons and can be installed in a range of locations. You can also speak to professional landscapers, like those on our team, for planting tips and advice.
The Best Landscaping Tips For Tricky-Shaped Gardens
Moving on from the common challenges posed by tricky-shaped gardens, it is time to consider the garden design as a whole. No matter what type of garden you have or the limitations of it’s shape, these following landscaping tips are incredibly useful and will allow you to have an attractive, vibrant space that the whole family can enjoy.
Consider Shapes And Textures
While the challenges of your tricky-shaped garden may limit the choice of plants you can have in your garden, this does not mean it has to be a uniform environment. Even within the same family of plants, such as evergreen shrubs, you can implement different colours, shapes and textures to create interest in your tricky-shaped garden.
It is a good idea to implement a variety of textures when planting, as this makes the space interesting and can also create the illusion of more space when done well. Different colours of the same flowers can also enhance the appeal of your garden, and ensure that the landscape is visually pleasing despite the limitations.
As well as using plants to create interest, paving and other hardscaping elements can also be included. Incorporating different textures through cobblestone or block paving pathways, for example, can make such a difference in tricky-shaped gardens by creating areas of interest that draw eyes away from uneven boundaries and other areas of asymmertry.
Vertical Planting
If you are limited on usable space for planting, you do not have to go without. Vertical planting such as training vines over fences or vertical gardens can be a great tool. This is now a popular trend in all kinds of gardens because it creates natural focal points without compromising valuable floor space.
Trailing flowers and even turfing can be installed vertically, such as against your fence, to add colour and texture to the garden. Installing walls, trellises and lattice panels can be a great way to add vertical interest in the garden as you have available space to train climbing plants.
Vertical planting is one of the best landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens as it draws the eye upwards, and away from any limited space on the ground.
Quality Over Quantity
Quality over quantity is a good maxim for many areas of life but plays a significant role in landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens. If you are limited on space, whether this is through the size, shape, or condition of your garden, you want to avoid clutter as much as possible.
While you may be tempted to add a lot of flowers and decorative items in your garden design to distract from the odd shape of your garden, this is only going to work against you. Instead of creating an exciting and vibrant space, your garden is certain to look cluttered, disorganised and only more tricky-shaped than you intended.
This is why it is a great idea to focus on quality over quantity when landscaping a tricky-shaped garden, such as considering only the best plants for the landscape and adding a small amount compared to lots of different ones in all areas. By taking care to add only plants or features that work with the unique conditions of your garden, you not only create an attractive landscape but a healthy one too as each plant has space to grow and thrive.
Conclusion
The shape of your garden does not have to hinder your vision for design, as these landscaping tips for tricky-shaped gardens can be used to make the best out of any space. With some careful consideration, creativity and balance you can create an environment that looks amazing and continues to thrive despite the difficult conditions.
At Heath Landscapes & Garden Design, we deliver a wide range of landscaping services, including a comprehensive garden design solution, that can help transform any outdoor space into a beautiful haven. Our team have decades of experience and our passionate about producing only the best results for our clients. We operate across Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas, working with clients of varying needs and budgets.
Contact Us Today
If your garden needs professional help, then you have come to the right place. Our team is available to provide landscaping, paving and design solutions across the region.
Contact us today to learn more or to request a quote.
