PROJECT
The Friendly Plant
Your garden is the first and last feature visitors notice. For homeowners, it becomes the space where cherished memories are made.
When considering a garden, it’ s easy to focus solely on the plants. While they are indeed essential, to add colour, softness, movement, and fragrance, plants also provide a bountiful harvest, depending on what you choose to grow. However, simply planting without creating user-friendly spaces limits your garden ' s full potential.
Incorporating a designer outdoor space can transform your garden from a visual delight into an immersive experience.
A new perspective on garden spaces
Many believe that if a home has a patio, additional outdoor features aren’ t necessary. But being out in the garden, away from the house, creates a distinctly different atmosphere. Similarly, you don’ t need a large garden to have an inviting, practical outdoor space. Even small, overlooked corners can be transformed, enhancing how you use and enjoy your garden.
This particular garden demonstrates how a small area can become a bold, beautiful, and practical feature, perfect for both relaxation and entertainment.
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Design elements and inspiration
Our design uses minimal ground space but makes a big statement. The garden revolves around the four basic elements: earth, fire, water, and wind.
• Earth is represented by the garden’ s planting and the bag-washed finish we used instead of plaster. We selected a mix of grasses and succulents to create an attractive, hardy, water-wise garden that’ s easy to maintain. The bag-washed walls expose the underlying brickwork, offering a more organic look than perfectly plastered walls. This finish creates a wonderful texture that contrasts with the hard, flat paving and looks fantastic at night when the lighting highlights the wall’ s imperfections.
• Fire is a lively, warming element that creates a wonderful atmosphere in a garden or entertainment space. The focus of this space is the fire, a central feature. We used a FireBlades fire pit as a design element that adds detail to the space. This stylish, brazier-style fire pit allows viewing the fire from all sides, and its open design facilitates the movement of warm air well beyond the immediate area.
• Water provides a calming, relaxing soundtrack to any space. We integrated the fire pit with a water feature, creating an interesting and unique focal point at the garden’ s centre. The water gently spills
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