Top garden design ideas from the award-winning Charlotte Rowe Garden Design company. Charlotte and Design Director Tomoko Kawauchi tell us some of the design secrets that has made the company so successful. And check some fascinating ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of some of their gardens.
For Charlotte Rowe Garden Design: https://www.charlotterowe.com/
00:00 Introduction
00:13 Charlotte Rowe and Design Director, Tomoko Kawauchi
01:02 The three things that are important when designing your garden
01:33 Tip 1 – make a list of everything you do, use and see in your garden
01:59 Look at the light – where the sun falls
02:13 What’s already on site, in your garden, is very important
03:49 Draw out a rough ‘bubble’ map on a piece of paper
04:19 Tip 2 – think laterally (across the garden)
05:52 Tip 3 – paint fencing, walls or trellis dark
07:04 Tip 4 – plant close to the house
07:49 Tip 5 – plant mainly evergreens in small gardens
09:02 Garden design mistake 1 – don’t ‘centre’ the garden
11:05 Garden design mistake 2 – don’t make your borders too small
12:07 What garden designers and landscapers do
12:53 The Society of Garden Designers in the UK: https://www.sgd.org.uk/
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43 Comments
Great tips!
Although I'm more a plant person than a garden designer I do appreciate the skill and artistry that was demonstrated in this video and also I appreciate the great tips. The one thing I don't really understand however is the use of very dark color on walls and fences where you are going to put plants. In my Pennsylvania garden, if I painted my west-facing fence dark blue or black it would look stylish and add drama, but every plant that I have there now would lean away from the fence in search of light and/or be cooked to a crisp by the western rays of the sun hitting that surface during the summer months. I think the advice to paint walls and fences dark colors really needs to be very carefully considered for those reasons.
Your videos have helped my career and business and inspired me so much – thank you – wholeheartedly , from Rachael Taylor LoveGardens x
Awesome tips! Thank you for sharing, it is wonderful to see how a Garden designer plans ahead and utilizes the space.
The principles make sense wherever one gardens. Rational and beautiful! Thank you.
This was very helpful!!Just painted the house,next the foundation, then my medium sized backyard. My echinacea has "Aster Yellow"!!!!Didn't even know it was a thing.Ugh
There is a British paint company which calls its very dark green exterior paint Invisible Green, I guess it’s for the reason explained in your upload.
Lots to think about. We are redoing our backyard and you gave us some good tips as to what to discuss with the designer/landscaper
I have been gardening for years now myself and sometimes I feel there is still something missing in my yard as I try to figure out where to plant this and that. But in the end, it is the design and the journey that would take you to how you want your garden to look. Gardening always take patience and passion and guts to make changes in your yard. Redesigning is always that first step! Thanks for the tips!
Very informative and well structured presentation. Thank you Alexandra, you delivered again 👌✅
Such an informative session packed with a wealth of helpful information! Just discovered your channel and will definitely stay tuned… Thanks so much for sharing.
Diving in this is a timely video as I'm planning on restructuring my back garden and adding a path breaking up this awful non lawn I've got but keeping some green.
Great ideas etc.
I’m getting to this video late (it’s been a busy past few weeks!), but I love all of your “garden design” videos. One of the things I’ve been curious about recently is permaculture design. The literature has a lot of intriguing ideas, like zones around the house, or guilds of plants that work well together. If you ever come across someone with that type of expertise, I would be thrilled to watch of you interviewing them! Thank you for another great video, the work you showed from those designers was excellent.
Hello please can you tell me what to grow in winter other than bulbs
I have just found your Chanel and I love it
Thank You so so much but I do need to know what I can grow in winter
Again I Love your Chanel
Barbra
West Sussex
Love the dark grey backgrounds and vertical/across garden idea.
The Chiswick before and after photos really do illustrate the point made exceptionally well.
Such a helpful video, Alexandra. Very handy, as we will be moving into a new-build with a practically empty garden, so need lots of design guidance. Thank you for your fantastic videos xx
I had a dark hunter green cement fence in order to blur the property boundaries for 25 years. I hacked everything off yesterday. Sanded. Karcher washed. Handwashed with soap. Rinsed. Dried. Now painted Plascon French Shutter green. Deepened 20 litre to a 30 litre formula. What a blessed change. Uplifted. Lightened area. Uplifted. Also at night it is not so frightening dark. Rules. Bah Humbug! Just go for it. You can dress yourself and you can style your own life. Get on with it.
I really enjoyed watching this particularly the bit about the house structure. I have a 1970s mid-terrace house. The back door is flanked by windows either side and the garden path runs in line from the back door to the garden gate so the house and garden are symmetrical I would love to know how I can make it look less 'formal' and take the focus away from the garden gate.
I really love Chriswick’s after garden. Its Amazing ! Now I have an idea to cover the fence with plants. Thank you for showing.
This was so helpful. Thank you! Now drawing up plans to make my borders larger. 😁
i will say i really enjoyed this video, thank you for putting on yt. i want to see more.
Show us structural plants that are evergreen for borders and in front of fences and surrounding the house.
This video popped up on my home page and happened to address the one struggle I was having with placement of a small tree. Replaced a good portion of my front lawn with a large bed. Planted the tree off to one side to keep the foundation plantings from looking too symmetrical, look good from inside, and also as a benefit, obscure the view of my neighbors driveway across the street. Questioned whether I should move it to the center of the bed. Now I feel happy with the placement. Thank you!
So helpful
This is great information! I have a house with @ a third of an acre (or @ .12 hectare) and struggle with how to design my garden.
Thanks , informative vlog.
Any advise for nice garden patio slabs please. Thanks .
It seems that the two interviewees in the video are not satisfied with each other 😦😦
I adore this channel! Thank you
Aligning the garden with the back door is such a good tip! I never thought of that.
Studied the Chiswick garden before and after pictures intensely. What a difference! Gorgeous, simply gorgeous now. The price of the house just went up 50K.
I love this video, It gave unthinkable useful tips and precaution of mistakes that are not known to an ordinary gardener. Good job, Alexandra! I also highly appreciated Charlotte Rowe's works.
I just bought a house with a large yard. The idea of plantings arranged laterally across the space is fascinating and I’m now eager to give it a try. (I do plan to work with a landscape architect). Thanks for the great tips!
Brilliant brilliant channel. Thanks for all the videos!
Very good advice to consider!
May we have subtitles for when the delightful Australian dressed in splendid yellow contributes? I am certain she has good things to say. Thanks awfully.
Thank you so much, very helpful, giving us an idea of what we should look for ❤️
Great video. Would love to know the different plants Charlotte has used in her garden..I know you mentioned yew balls and beech balls, but I’m curious about the other planting too.. many thanks
Great video, thank you! I have finished the gardening course, however, I get even better tips only in this video. Would you be able to let me know what kind of tree in the front does Charlotte have? It's visible at 8:30 minutes on the right. It looks like a small evergreen tree. Thank you in advance!
Really stunning garden created by these ladies. I would love to see what they would do with a large garden in a subtropical area. English garden design is often too formal for my personal taste, and the deigns by these ladies are much closer to what I prefer.
What a great video, as a 45yr old chap with absolutely no clue on gardens this has helped thank you!
The after photo of the Chiswick garden is incredible. What an astounding difference.
Very informative.