Not sure how to lay out your garden? Designer and TV presenter Adam Frost talks about his new plot and passes on his top garden design tips. And there’s the chance to win tickets to next month’s Gardeners’ World Live 2018 where he will be one of the speakers.
Following the transformation of Adam Frost’s new garden is widely regarded as one of the highlights of Gardeners’ World. For months, viewers have watched him clearing overgrown areas, creating a new vegetable plot and working out what to do with the space.
“The nation does seem to have fallen a little bit in love with the garden,” he says, sounding somewhat surprised.
For him, taking on three acres after a large town garden is “the stuff of dreams” yet not without its difficulties.
The garden in Lincolnshire was far from a blank canvas with mature trees and large yew hedges, a framework that is both a delight and something that shapes what he can do.
“The structure has been a highlight and one of the limiting factors because I didn’t feel I could change it,” he explains.
“Being a designer, if I was given a blank piece of paper, I would be away but this takes a bit more time, it’s more about editing.”
He’s spent the past two years getting to know the garden, working out potential frost pockets or where a microclimate will allow him to grow more tender things, seeing what is already there.
“The interesting bit is that even on year two I’ve had things come up that didn’t come up on year one. That’s been lovely and I’ve had some highlights – I’ve inherited a load of Tulipa sylvestris and they didn’t really do a lot in year one.”
Cutting back and pruning can change the growing conditions, giving other things a better chance to shine while lifting the canopy on trees and shrubs, something Adam has done, changes the conditions on the ground underneath.
There were two areas that he could tackle immediately: an overgrown patch that has now been turned into a raised bed vegetable garden and the gravel area in front of the house.
“With the rest of it, it was just slowly getting to understand it.”
He’s trying to establish what he describes as “the layers’, which he likens to an English woodland that has plants that range from large to small. In a garden, trees are the top storey, working down through shrubs and herbaceous to bulbs.
It’s a style of planting he believes is possible in any size of garden, simply by starting at the level that suits the space.
“In a small garden, you can add something like amelanchier or Cornus mas or one of the smaller malus. Most people can work a tree to into the space even when they don’t necessarily think they can.”
And he believes people are unnecessarily frightened by the thought of designing what he says is really only a room outside.
“We seem comfortable laying our houses out but as we open those doors, we get a bit of a panic,” he says. “If you think about it, it’s just another space. The differences are it is living but also there is no ceiling on it and I think that throws us a bit as well.”
The most important thing with garden design, he stresses, is to be relaxed, don’t worry too much about when to prune or making mistakes.
“Take everything as it goes. If it fails, it fails. Try something else. Just keep experimenting and playing.”
Here are his top tips for garden design.
Take your time
Learn about your garden before you make changes. Decide where the sun falls, which are the cold spots and what is already growing there.
“The first thing is to get understand it don’t go slashing and burning because some things, which you think might be a nightmare, might turn out to be a godsend. Things take an awful long time to grow so be mindful.”
Plan carefully
Take the time to measure your plot and put it on a plan. It makes deciding what to put where much easier.
“Get out and measure it up even if you think it’s really small, because I think if you measure things up and you get it on a piece of paper, you then start to understand the space.”
Decide what you need
A garden has to work for you so draw up a list of needs from a children’s play area to space to eat out.
“Build yourself a list of what you require from that space and put your garden together around that.”
Decide on the atmosphere
Whether you want a bright fun-filled space or somewhere calm and peaceful, deciding on the atmosphere will influence everything in your garden design from layout to plant colours.
“We tend to add to our gardens a little bit piecemeal and then we create a garden that, if we’re lucky, eventually has an atmosphere instead of thinking on top of what do I want from this garden, how do I want it to feel?”
Think about the view
Whether it be from the kitchen window, a bench or dining table, ensure your garden design gives you something to look at be it planting, a bird bath or water feature.
“Imagine that you’re naturally being pulled from A to B to C and in doing that making sure you’re providing something beautiful to look.”
Win tickets to Gardeners’ World Live
Adam will be one of the many speakers at Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham from June 14-17. Other features include: show gardens; more than 100 nurseries in the floral marquee; the Every Space Counts Stage with practical advice from GW Magazine editors; the Beautiful Borders contest; Gardeners Unplugged featuring garden bloggers; Blooming Interiors looking at houseplants with Matt Biggs; advice at Let’s Talk Allotments; the School Mealbarrows competition; free entry to the BBC Good Food Show.
I have five pairs of tickets to the show to giveaway, valid any day except Saturday June 16. You can enter via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
For more information about the show, visit the website.
Interesting and useful – I do like Adam’s advice. I’ve been to his Masterclasses at his garden and it is a really lovely place. Thanks for this great blog. It must have been lovely talking with him.
He was delightful 🙂