Courtyard Gardens by David Domoney

1 April 2020

 

Courtyard gardens are on-trend and terrific. With loads of design options, you can find a style that suits your home and garden. These are four fantastic courtyard designs that really make a statement

 

 

The key to Oriental looking gardens is water. Courtyard gardens are often compact and therefore look their best with one large statement feature rather than lots of small ones. Water gardening is creating a space where the key plants are adapted to growing in water, like water lilies. Fragrant flowers or shrubs such as Osmanthus fragrans (fragrant olive) or tree peonies and Japanese maples are most important, it’s all about that sensory experience.

 

 

You may want to recreate water themes with a rockery, fit with water cascading down the layers or with an ornate stone water fountain pride of place in the middle of the plot. Keeping fish in a pond can be really effective too but this works best in moderate-sized gardens.

 

 

With courtyard gardens, the key ingredient is the material you use for the flooring. Natural stone works incredibly well for courtyards with a rustic or holistic feel. Go for something like Pavestone’s Tudor Cathedral to incorporate interesting shapes to the design.

 

 

Create an alfresco dining space with Italian inspired planting. An informal eating area could be in the form of a table, furniture set, BBQ, pizza oven or similar. This extends the social spaces available to you and your family at home and can look really striking too.

 

 

Warm sun-baked pavers will remind of tropical climbs, using something like the Tudor Cloister paving from Pavestone. The great thing about these pavers is you can also pave with them inside your home to get a streamlined look from lounge to landscape.
Plant up with Mediterranean herbs like lavender, rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme and parsley. An edible garden mixes functionality with form, just reach over from your outdoor kitchen counter top and grab a handful of freshly grown herbs to add into your dish—there’s nothing better. Mix these leafy green plants with sun-baked oranges and muted tones for a truly relaxing and rewarding courtyard garden.

 

 

Then, why not finish off this simple design with some clever paved features. Use fossil stone setts to edge paths, create symmetrical circle patterns across the carriageway or have a mosaic feature incorporated into the construction.

 

 

Typically courtyard gardens appear as part of a castle or large house and are therefore either completely or partially enclosed with the buildings and walls. Contemporary twists on this traditional design are best suited to urban gardens who most benefit from making the most of compact spaces. But a courtyard garden doesn’t have to be a forgotten nook tucked away, gardens of all shapes and sizes can benefit from a courtyard-style setup, so why not break the mould and create a courtyard on a rooftop or balcony.

 

 

In tight plots, there are some quite clever things you can do to maximise space. Firstly, you want to opt for large pavers which unbusy the aesthetic and open everything up. Go for light surfaces to keep things airy, like the buttery tones of Piazza Oasis.

 

 

Bamboo screening can create zones within the space so that you can section off social, growing and functional spaces without too much interruption to the view. Finally, make use of the walls that are around and grow upward. In a garden, green screens of colour strewn across walls in the form of climbing plants, like exotic looking Campsis, are much more appealing to the eye than brick.

 

 

Design a courtyard chock-full of character. Historical and cottage homes will be well-suited to a traditional garden look, with ivy creeping its way up time-worn walling and cobblestone pathways. To create this look from scratch, opt for something like the Cambridge Tudor cobbles. You can leave a brick unlaid every so often and plant it up with ground plants like forget-me-nots and thyme which remain hardy to footfall but merge the line between unkempt natural beauty and man-made structures.

 

 

The other huge benefit of gardens like this is the abundance of wildlife they attract. You can propagate every pocket of space with plants for pollinators and beneficial insects. Where floor space limits you, put up some shelving to position some decorative pots.
The versatile nature of courtyard design gives you space to grow as a gardener, a family, and a nature enthusiast.

 

Why not have a look at this trailer by David Domoney for ITV's Love Your Garden featuring many Pavestone products?

 

 

There are many more videos featured here should you wish tom explore them.

 

David Domoney, TV gardener, horticultural expert and Pavestone brand ambassador blogs monthly on the Pavestone website on all things landscaping related. We look forward to seeing you back again next month.

 

 

 

 

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