For most people, having an outdoor space offers the opportunity to get some fresh air, enjoy warm weather and entertain guests. Whilst you may not be an enthusiastic gardener, having a patio area which looks inviting and vibrant is important for maximising the appeal of your garden. You can help lift your patio with the great range of luxurious outdoor furniture which is available, from modern table sets to rustic looking rattan loungers. But, if you really want to bring your outside patio space to life, incorporating a bit of garden design will add the finishing touches.
Depending on your preferred style, you may want to create the ultimate chic and modern environment, or a more gentile and rustic appearing outlook. The scene can be set by your choice of furniture, and you can indulge in straight lines and crisp curves with metal and glass materials. Alternatively, you could create a rustic ambiance by using natural wicker and rattan products, or conjure up some formality of the English estate garden with wrought iron and stone features.
Planting and garden design plays an important part in really setting your preferred style off, and you can use different materials and varieties in keeping with your theme to add some life to your patio area.
Traditional Garden Design
If you want some formality to your patio, then you only need to think of English Heritage gardens for some inspiration. Topiary can be perfect in this instance, and you could use cones and spheres of clipped privet in pots, or box hedging around the seating area. Ornate garden statues are also an integral feature of traditional gardens, as is symmetry, so try and balance all planting and designs accordingly.
Rustic Garden Design
Rustic and country looks are easily achieved by the use of natural materials. Bedding plants are ideal, and you can fill pots with bright colours which tumble over the edges. Glazed and terracotta pots work best, and you can use wicker trellis or pagoda’s to grow roses and clematis up. Meanwhile, a carefully placed trug, mini fork or boot works wonders for adding that extra icing on the cake.
Modern Garden Design
Modern gardens often utilise manmade materials to instantly create an ambiance which is up to date. Fussy and flowery planting should be avoided, and like in formal gardens, you can use topiary. However, your choice of pot might differ here, using a stainless steel or reinforced glass container to offer a sense of the futuristic. Grasses also work well in modern gardens, and are easy to look after in the patio environment. You can always introduce some flowers to the scheme as well, but limit your palette and plant choices, staying away from traditional cottage garden plants such as roses, poppies and peonies.
Patio design is much more than the furniture that you place, and to get the most from your space you should carefully think about the ambiance you are creating. By utilising plants to their best, and a range of materials to suit your garden furniture, you can make an appealing place to wine, dine and entertain.
On a warm, still night, there is no better way to light the garden than with candles. Whilst it’s not as easy as flicking a switch, taking the effort to bring one of the most natural lights available to the garden will have great rewards. Flames will gently flicker in a soft breeze, and you can create a truly romantic scene in any outdoor space by using candles. In addition, if you don’t have much in the way of nightly scents, you can utilise perfumed candles to offer an additional aroma to the garden (candles on a patio; right).
3. Fire Pits
In the UK the concept of outdoor living has increasingly caught on over the past decade. With 
This increase in demand has led to furniture manufacturers designing ranges of outdoor furniture that stand the test of time whilst being convenient, attractive and comfortable.
creation of 
Not only is it extremely practical but it’s also is impervious to weather. This ensure that is can be left outside all year round allowing it to be left outside all year round, further adding to the appeal of this stylish and comfortable outdoor furniture.
Fennel and Fern is one of the UK’s top blogs and gardening websites, and you’ll find more than enough here to keep you occupied. The blog is updated most days with inspirational garden design ideas, new plants which have become available, or even the chance to enter competitions. Fennel and Fern also have a growing advice section, a daily photo blog and links to beautiful gardens around the country. Their photography is sublime, and you’ll come away looking forward to popping back each morning for your inspirational read. Keep updated by following on 
Potting Up is one of the great garden design blogs written by Whichford Pottery gardener Harriet Rycroft (
Suburban gardener Geoff Wakeling (
The Guardian 
If you’re looking to find a creative, innovative and inspiring read, then Laetitia Maklouf is a fantastic blog. Laetitia (
Garden accessory company Garden Beet offer a great blog if you’re looking for some design tips. Whether you want specifics on garden design ideas, or simply want some inspiration to help formulate a new design for your own space, Garden Beet 
It’s important to pay attention to plants in the winter garden and ensure that you have a variety of specimens that will light up any space through the colder and darker months. Like the rest of the year, shrubs play an important part in providing a structural backbone to any winter garden design, but at this time of year you should try and incorporate evergreen species (see Cambridge University Botanic Gardens use of winter evergreens; right). Species of photinia, aucuba, pieris and even conifers are ideal, allowing you to create a backdrop against which other plants can be placed. Deciduous plants can also be used creatively to some degree, and the sparkling trunks of silver birch or the fiery tones of common dogwood stems do wonders at bringing intense colour into the winter garden.
Simply having winter garden plants isn’t enough to draw your design together though, and you need to ensure that your planting makes the most of your plants. Like gardening at other times of the year, you should ensure that your evergreen shrubs and deciduous varieties are planted with contrast in mind, allowing the red stems of dogwood to shine even more brightly against the lime green of aucuba leaves for example. Meanwhile, you should ensure that you plant smaller flowering species in groups rather than dotting them individually throughout flowerbeds (use clumps of snowdrops rather than placing individual bulbs; see picture). Pansies, cyclamen and small bulbs including crocus can easily become lost if planted individually. They will not create the vibrant impact that is needed in a winter garden design, and therefore must be planted in large groups to draw the eye. It is far better to have one or two groups at the approach and ends of your garden, than to have many plants spread throughout but which easily get lost amongst other planting.
“I think guerrilla gardening’s important because there are things in life that it’s best to just go and do rather than ask for, guerrilla gardening is about winning people round through your actions, your commitment and demonstrating that the fears which might deny you permission were you to ask, are usually unfounded,” says guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds. And, if you want to venture beyond the boundaries of your garden, and indeed your conscience, then guerrilla gardening is certainly for you.
Whilst many in the guerrilla gardening movement opt to head out under the cover of darkness, others dare to plant areas in daylight. Richard Reynolds book, ‘On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries’, is an inspirational read, and it’s a great place to find do’s and don’ts, especially if you’re a little concerned with venturing out alone. 
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