A professional’s guide to creating a beautiful outdoor space

As summer fast approaches, we asked Lucy from Lucy’s Garden, a Norfolk-based gardening services business, for her top tips on how to create the perfect outdoor space to suit you.

Gardens are an extension of our homes and should offer a multipurpose space, where we can relax, dine and unwind.

It fascinates and excites me that every garden is individually unique, offering different shapes, sizes, and positions, however they all share the same goal: to become a well-utilised space full of wonder and personality.

The big question is – how do we achieve a beautiful outside space?

Take your time

As a garden designer, people often ask me if I have any tips for creating a unique outside space, and the best advice I can give is to take a little time to plan.

For example, if you were looking to decorate a room inside your home, you wouldn’t just buy the first pot of paint you came to. You would carefully consider furniture, flooring and accessories. Your garden should be treated with the same thoughtfulness and care.

Prioritise function over fashion

As lovely as many current garden trends are, they may not necessarily suit your individual needs and existing surroundings, which is why taking time to plan your garden is important.

I often think gardening is a lot like fashion – although there are always the latest styles and trends, we still have to adapt them to our own individual taste, as well as considering your outside surroundings.

What colour plants will you have? Would your materials and colour look sympathetic to the architecture of your home and buildings surrounding it?

Considering questions like these will help you to create the perfect outdoor space for your needs and surroundings.

Consider installing decking

With more and more people using their gardens as outdoor living spaces, creating seating areas is very important. Therefore, when selecting hard landscaping materials, think about durability, functionality and colour.

As a designer I often incorporate a decking area into my designs because it’s an excellent hard landscaping material. It not only works wonderfully with other landscaping materials but also gives you a real sense of outside living.

Thankfully Trex composite decking offers an extensive range of colours, so whether you’re looking to achieve a contemporary look or embrace a more traditional style, Trex has it covered.

Although there are no written rules on what colours you should use, I do personally feel that some styles and colours work better with others.

For example, if you wanted to create a more contemporary look, you could select ‘Calm Water’ or ‘Island Mist’. Either of these grey tones would work in harmony with Granite paving and calming planting tones of blues, purples, and whites.

Or for the more traditional look, consider ‘Spiced Rum’ or ‘Toasted sand’. These warm earthy colours would work effortlessly against natural sandstone paving and delicious fresh tones for yellow and white flowers.

Trex decking is a superb product and looks great in any outdoor space. It offers a wide range of colours, as well as peace of mind with its 25 year warranty – I would highly recommend it.