David Domoney: Mastering Minimalism in the Garden
12 March 2024
David Domoney: Mastering minimalism In The Garden
Embracing the concept of a minimalist garden is a delightful strategy to transform your outdoor space, seamlessly embodying the principle of 'making less, more.' Contrary to the notion of a barren landscape, your garden can radiate sophistication with just a few carefully selected elements and strategic color choices. Effortlessly mastering minimalism, discover the art of recreating a simple yet impactful minimalist design in your home garden. Additionally, uncover valuable tips for nurturing and maintaining the vibrant beauty of your Hydrangeas.
Setting the Tone
Once decided that you want to create a minimalist, stylish garden, then getting started with a colour scheme is the priority. For minimalism, you want to limit the palette of colours you choose for your landscaping, keeping them neutral. Natural colours such as whites, browns, greens, greys and blacks are perfect for the main elements.
Neutral & Natural
In keeping with a focus on simplicity, minimalist designs embrace authentic natural materials like stone, wood, and vegetation. Take, for instance, the inclusion of white Dolomite porcelain paving in this garden, offering an ideal and neutral canvas for shaping your design. The marble face of the paving seamlessly aligns with the theme of natural materials, exuding both elegance and timelessness, reminiscent of the many ancient marble sanctuaries found throughout Europe.
Simplistic Furniture
Choosing your furniture for a minimalist-style garden can be simple too. For example, this garden has added some warmth to the space to balance out the cooler-coloured paving, with a modern, chevron-patterned wooden sofa set and coffee table, plus some rattan features in the mirror, table display, and hanging egg chair, perfect for cosying up in with a good book for summer afternoons.
Balance
The cream and brown cushions further develop the warming effect of the wood. Balance is important for a minimalist design, and so by reaching an equilibrium between warm and cold features, this garden has followed the premise. However, you could choose instead a wrought iron dining set, or a grey corner unit if you would prefer a different style.
Green growing
Planting should be simple for minimalism also, keeping different colours limited but, in this garden, creates some vibrancy to counter the neutral shades.
Shape & form
Opting for topiary, such as crafting small spheres from Buxus sempervirens (Box hedge) as showcased in this garden, presents a simple yet effective choice to introduce heightened color through plants. Beyond the aesthetic appeal, these meticulously shaped elements contribute essential bursts of color while discreetly offering a layer of privacy for indoor spaces adjacent to the lawn and outdoor seating area. The rounded forms additionally introduce a pleasing contrast to the sharp angles prevalent in the paving, wooden furniture, and raised beds, adding a touch of welcomed variety to the overall garden design.
How to maintain a Hydrangea’s colour
Featured in this garden are two potted Hydrangeas, each a different variety and colour. Surprisingly, these Hydrangeas have some contrasting requirements to keep them looking colourful.
Blue Blooms
Cultivating vibrant blue blooms in the Hydrangea macrophylla (Mophead Hydrangea) demands special attention, primarily centered around maintaining acidic soil conditions with a pH of 5.5 or lower. Failure to achieve this acidity may result in flowers leaning towards shades of lilac or pink instead of the desired blue hue. The initial step involves determining the existing pH level of your garden soil, often leaning towards a neutral pH around 7, which is unfavourable for blue hydrangeas.
In this particular scenario, the homeowner has opted for a practical approach to control soil pH by cultivating the blue Hydrangeas in a container, effectively isolating them from the surrounding garden soil to ensure a consistently low pH. To create an optimal environment, utilise a peat-free ericaceous compost and implement acidifying methods, such as adding Sulphur, to elevate and sustain a consistently lower pH level, facilitating the ideal conditions for maintaining the striking blue colour of the Hydrangea blooms.
Pink Blooms
The pink Hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata (Panicle Hydrangea), distinguishes itself as a variety that does not rely on pH levels for colour maintenance. Unlike its counterparts, Panicle Hydrangeas effortlessly retain their existing colour without requiring any intervention. Although this particular Hydrangea doesn't necessitate container cultivation to preserve its pink hue, strategically placing it opposite another Hydrangea can create a harmonious symmetry in the garden.
Nevertheless, certain varieties may demand slight interventions to uphold an alkaline soil pH conducive to their colour preferences. To achieve this, begin with soil that has limey qualities, then enhance the pH further using garden lime. Incorporate this into the soil before planting or distribute it over the surface afterward. For most pH-dependent pink Hydrangeas, maintaining a pH as low as 6.5 should prove sufficient to sustain the desired flower colour. Noteworthy varieties include Hydrangea paniculata (Panicle Hydrangea) and Hydrangea macrophylla (Mophead Hydrangea).
Minimalist gardens have become increasingly popular in recent years, so it’s no wonder that this stunning design was chosen to feature on the front cover garden of Pavestone’s New 2024 Landscaping Brochure. Click the link to see more stunning garden creations using Pavestone landscaping products and building materials.
Or you could even visit your local Pavestone stockist and pick up your own copy. Your local Pavestone stockist is closer than you think and can be found on our Find you Nearest Stockist section on our website.
You can also find your nearest Pavestone Preferred Landscaper and even your nearest Pavestone Preferred Garden Designer on our website too.
Jon Layton, Group CEO of Pavestone:
The landscaper and designer behind this garden is Geoff Scott. Geoff certainly knows how to create a big impact and when we saw this Dolomite porcelain paving project we instinctively knew that this was the cover feature for our 2024 Pavestone brochure. As David has described in this blog, by using a neutral base, you can curate a wonderful minimalist design easily. I feel this project is a wonderful demonstration of this and how best our products can be used for a beautiful, yet simple 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.
