Before you do any landscaping design project, it’s essential to sit down and do some extensive research into the different styles, ideas and approaches you could adopt so as to avoid potentially expensive mistakes later down the line.
Knowing what you like and what you don’t will help make the decision-making process far simpler, ensuring that you’re happy with the end result.
One of the most popular garden design trends for 2024 is naturalistic planting, where you veer away from prescriptive, ordered layouts and planting patterns to embrace instead the idea of working with the earth in a more organic way.
Doing so will mean your garden becomes more informal and more relaxed – but don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s an easy look to achieve. You’ll still need to put a lot of time and thought into plant choices, taking into account the type of soil you have and the light exposure your garden gets.
What’s great about this particular approach is that it is equally as effective in both big and small spaces, but it’s important to make sure that you still create a sense of structure throughout the garden, unlike a wild garden where you just let nature take its course to see what happens outside.
Mark out an area of your space that you’d like to be more naturalistic and then aim to keep your plants confined within it. You’ll still be able to enjoy the freedom of the plants as they grow and bloom together throughout the year, without it taking over the entire garden!
Similar to wild gardens, naturalistic planting has benefits beyond being beautiful to look at and you’ll be able to encourage lots of local biodiversity and support pollinators by working with nature in this way. The fact that you end up with a stunning garden at the same time makes it a very real win-win!