Too much hard landscaping
‘You should always find ways to break up views and add greenery wherever you can. You don’t want your eye drawn to all the materials you’ve had to import into a garden, instead you want to focus on plants. I can’t believe I have to say that but I suppose it’s also an aversion to the idea of the “outdoor room”. I’m currently working on a project where we are having to excavate half a metre of poured concrete – it’s a beast to get out but at the end of it the clients will actually be able to see plants from their basement kitchen!’ – Tabi Jackson Gee
‘One of the most common excesses in garden design is the vast terrace: great swathes of paving stretching between seating areas. In reality, the space between them only needs to function as a walkway. Anything more tends to be visually heavy, environmentally costly, and financially extravagant. Reducing hard surfaces has several advantages. It lowers material costs and embodied carbon, improves drainage, and gives planting a chance to do the work. Gardens rarely suffer from too little paving, but they frequently suffer from far too much.’ – Tabitha Rigden
Fake grass
‘The environmental case is well documented – microplastics, heat, destroyed soil biology – but my strongest objection is more personal. Children should grow up with the feeling of real grass under bare feet. That cool, soft feeling of a summer lawn is one of those foundational sensory experiences that connects us to the natural world. Swap it for plastic, and no amount of low-maintenance convenience compensates for what’s lost. If a lawn feels like too much work, ask honestly whether you need one at all.’ – Harry Holding
‘Plastic, astroturf, resin gravels are all to be avoided. All components in a garden should age together. The moment you have a wipe clean or artificial surface it will soon stick out like a sore thumb. Embrace the ageing process with joy!’ – Joe and Laura Carey, Carey Garden Design Studio
‘If a potential client approaches us and tells us that one aspect of their brief is AstroTurf, we say we are really sorry but we do not do fake grass! It looks awful and is seriously bad for the health and wellbeing of garden as the earth below cannot breath and will become unhealthy. Totally unsustainable.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Porcelain or ceramic paving
‘Porcelain paving has become something of a default choice in contemporary gardens, largely because it’s marketed as low-maintenance and modern. Personally, I would almost always avoid it. In wet conditions, porcelain can be a slippery death-trap with little grip. It can also look artificial alongside planting. Gardens are living environments, and porcelain’s perfect, uniform finish can look too new and too crisp against the softness of plants. Natural materials mellow and become part of the garden over time. Porcelain, by contrast, often looks exactly as it did the day it was laid, or slightly worse. I almost always prefer natural stone or textured materials that weather beautifully and feel rooted in the landscape.’ – Jo Thompson
‘We really try to avoid any porcelain or ceramic paving and prefer to work with natural materials including stone paving and gravel, and occasionally timber. Once in a while, we are pushed into laying the same flooring as in the interior of the client’s property, but it never feels right. Apart from anything else, porcelain is quite slippery which is not ideal in an outdoor space, particularly in our climate.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Comments are closed.