How to design a contemporary garden. A case study by David Domoney
14 February 2024
Perfect for hosting
Having an area in your garden that is perfect for hosting is essential for many when designing outdoor spaces. This garden has achieved just that, a calming and refined cooking and dining area that works seamlessly in the space, whilst incorporating the wonderful colours of nature.
A cookery and hosting haven
Creating space for a barbecue in your garden is important, but having additional space for prepping and serving can provide the perfect outdoor kitchen for all your hosting needs. What this garden has achieved is not only finding a dedicated space for a barbecue, but also creating a minimalist kitchen with plenty of space to prep, cook, serve, and store away any tools and equipment.
Walling Makes The Landscape
This section of the garden has been created using Pavestone’s Minerali Cladding in the shade Zinco. This cladding allows the space to look well-established, giving a clean and professional atmosphere. The grey tones of Zinco collaborate perfectly with the silver trims of the storage area, barbecue itself, and the discreet equipment rail. Whilst the silver of the trim may seem to have a clean and almost
clinical look, the varied tones of the Minerali cladding softens the space providing a much more inviting feel into the space.
Essential Seating
Perfectly placed next to the cookery area is a lovely seating area, using rattan-style armchairs and a glass-topped coffee table. This section is ideal for enabling both hosting and cooking both safely and sociably.
Perfect for morning coffee
On just the other side of this is a dedicated bistro area, perfectly nestled into a raised bed alcove and ideal for a morning coffee whilst embracing nature. The neutral tones of this furniture encourage relaxation, whilst working well with the variant grey shades in both the Minerali cladding and Dolomite Moon paving.
The wider garden in mind
This whole paved section of the garden hasn’t been isolated from the larger space and lawned area below. The rest of the garden is invited into the space using glass balustrades rather than continuing the Minerali Cladding raised beds.
Not only does this allow those dining and relaxing in the seating area a view into the wider garden and vice versa, but it also allows more light into the raised paved section of the garden, brightening it up easily.
Transporting you down from the paved section into the lawned area, is a set of Minerali clad and Dolomite Moon paved steps. These steps have been designed with a full bullnose design, softening the edge of the paving to contrast the sharp edges of the framing raised beds.
A full bullnose is just one of several options for the edges of your steps, with half bullnose or even a straight edge also being wonderful options to incorporate into your design. The light and bright colour of the Dolomite Moon acts as a safety feature, allowing the steps to be nice and visible. The anti-slip feature of the Dolomite paving also reduces any trip hazards when travelling from a damp lawn up to the seating area.
Framing in Colour
This entire paved seating area has been framed and punctuated by several sections of raised beds, filled with wonderful colour. These plants provide a brilliant contrast to the neutral tones found in the paving, cladding, and furniture, allowing the planting to become the main event. The bonus to using these raised consistently throughout the space is that they are easier to maintain without having to bend and kneel, plus they are out of reach for any snack-happy canine friends and young children.
There is a great deal of wonderful and colourful flowers on display in these raised beds, creating a rainbow display to enjoy with friends and family.
The tall and bright purple Scabiosa contrasts well with the white Dahlia and bright pink Impatiens walleriana (busy lizzie) plants. In addition, the towering Penstemons (Beardtongues) and Agapanthus add depth and texture to this cottage garden display.
This is further developed with lovely wildflowers such as Anemone x hybrida (Japanese Anemone). Overall, these
plants can produce a warm and colourful display, to stand out against the grey paving and cladding.
Jon Layton, Group CEO of Pavestone: The landscapers behind this garden are M Lynch Landscapes. As a preferred Pavestone installer, they are experts at producing wonderful results from our Dolomite paving and Minerali cladding. As David has described in this blog, a neutral and textured paving and cladding combination can have a powerful impact on your design. I feel this is a wonderful demonstration of how best our products can be used for a beautiful, finished garden design.
We have hundreds of stunning videos, depicting beautifully landscaped gardens, which have used Pavestone landscaping and building materials to realise our homeowners 'dream gardens'. Set yourself some time to explore our videos. Maybe make some plans for a garden makeover this Spring?
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.
