DESIGN award winning design

Simply Stylish [working with shapes]

One thing you learn when studying garden design is that circles ALWAYS work well, so we know we're onto a winner with the layout of this garden.

A circle is a very strong, geometric shape, and it 'draws the eye', as the jargon goes, meaning that it encourages the viewer to focus on the internal space, and makes it possible to ignore unsightly surroundings.

In this garden, the shape is reinforced by the brick edging around the lawn, and then repeated in the edging to the water feature to add further emphasis.

Our paving is random in shape as well as layout, and designed to give the feeling of 'wrapping around' the edge of the lawn.

A curved path around the left-hand side of the lawn, leading to the gazebo, would also be a possibility, and useful from a practical point of view.

In this garden, we've gone for traditional-looking materials in an attempt to maintain the soft nature of the design. We've used Stonemarket Millstone Paving, Stonemarket Antique Brick for the lawn and water feature surrounds and Antique Brick Basket Weave inserts in the patio.

We left wide joints between the slabs for a natural look, and filled these with Bowland Stone "Chard Flint", which blends in well because it contains both browns and greys to match the bricks and paving. We placed mixed pebbles around the wine bottles in the water feature.

The trellis panels at the back of the garden are Forest Europa "Hamburg" screens. Posts are finished off with acorn finials.

The gazebo is a style called "Ribbesford" by Malvern. Both the gazebo and trellis were painted with Cuprinol "Sea Grass".