How to Design Awkward Garden Spaces
Creating an outdoor space you love may be complicated based on the organic shape and layout of your garden. Not a lot of homeowners are blessed with an even, symmetrical landscape and instead have to navigate tricky-shaped spaces to get the layout they want.
While this may make the renovation process seem more daunting, awkward garden spaces do not have to cause issues. It is possible to create a beautiful design for your landscape, no matter the shape or condition.
As a leading landscaping company, Landesigns understands this perfectly. Over the years, we have helped many people achieve their dream outdoor space by partnering with top garden designers and supplying premium materials. Using this experience, we are sharing some of the best landscaping tips for awkward garden spaces to show that everyone can have a garden they love.
What Shape Is Your Garden? Understanding Awkward Garden Spaces
The first step in any outdoor renovation is a site assessment, but this becomes especially vital when working with awkward garden spaces. Understanding the unique shape and condition of your landscape can determine all future decisions, help you narrow down options and ensure the renovation is successful.
This is why, at the beginning of all landscaping projects, we offer a site consultation to our clients. This is a time when you can share your proposed design for your landscape, and our team will measure and inspect your current environment to ensure precision.
Before you can make any changes to awkward garden spaces, you need to understand how awkward it truly is. This means measuring the dimensions, drawing a blueprint of the space, and understanding the unique shape it takes. From here, you can highlight the main problem areas and prioritise the landscaping solutions that will have the most impact.
Some of the most common awkward garden shapes include:
- Long and Narrow Gardens: This is very common for terraced homes and older properties with surrounding neighbours, reducing the space for design elements
- Sloped Gardens: Whether the garden goes up or downhill also needs to be assessed, as this will impact soil condition and may cause erosion
- Corner or Wedge-Shaped Plots: With uneven angles and narrow corners, sunlight patterns are going to be uneven across the garden, and not every area will be usable
- Split-Level Or Multi-Tiered Gardens: Access is a major issue with these kinds of gardens, as well as the flow of design, as each area is separated
- Small or Enclosed Gardens: For these gardens, growing plants and flowers may be difficult because of the low light conditions and reduced sunlight hours
Understanding the unique conditions and shape of your garden can make it easier to design a layout that works. This step is usually performed by professional garden designers ahead of creating the plan for your outdoor space.
Top Design Tips For Awkward Garden Spaces
Now you understand what kind of garden shape you are dealing with, it is easier to create a layout that works. Each awkward garden space has its own unique issues that can be remedied, covered or featured in the garden design.
To create a cohesive outdoor space that looks great and remains healthy, consider the following design tips based on what kind of garden you have:
Narrow Gardens
As we have mentioned, narrow outdoor spaces are one of the most common kinds of awkward garden spaces because they are usually found in terraced properties. Homes which are surrounded by neighbours often have long, but narrow outdoor spaces to work with, which can feel limiting, but do not have to be with these design tips:
- Horizontal Placement
When the garden is narrow, it is very easy to clutter the space and overwhelm it with garden design features, which is why horizontal planting and paving are a great design method. Horizontal placement of both soft and hard landscaping, such as a horizontal patio space or garden path, creates width and makes the garden appear larger.
- Vertical Planting And Features
To create a beautiful contrast between the width of your garden, vertical plants and features should be used to draw the eyes upwards. Features such as pergolas, tall fences, and sculptures can be used to draw the eye away from the narrow floor space.
Climbing plants, ornamental grasses and tall trees can also be used as vertical features, offering both natural appeal while working with the organic shape of your garden.
- Garden Zones
It can be difficult to maintain a sense of flow in garden design when working with narrow spaces, which is why zoning is partially useful for these awkward garden spaces. Creating separate zones in the garden, often horizontal zones to create a sense a depth, can allow you to design a functional and attractive outdoor space.
For example, a patio space at the front of the garden, which is separate from the main lawn area, and a deck or garden room at the bottom. This allows you to use your garden for a range of purposes, giving kids and adults designated spaces to enjoy, while also avoiding the common issue of clutter in narrow spaces.
Sloped Gardens
Whether your garden slopes uphill or downhill, you may struggle to maintain a sense of control. The varying soil conditions and increased risk of soil erosion can make planting difficult. Uneven surfaces can also be difficult to build on top of, but this does not necessarily have to hold you back in garden design with these tips:
- Incorporate Retaining Walls And Steps
Add structure to your sloped garden by building retaining walls and steps to provide access between the varying levels.
Retaining walls can be customised to suit your unique garden design and property style based on the material you choose. For example, natural stone walls can be a great complement to traditional properties and cottage gardens, while also reducing soil erosion across the garden. These walls can also be used to terrace the land, creating flat spaces for planting and flowers.
By combining retaining walls and steps, you can create accessible tiers to the garden. Each zone will have a unique purpose, and you can create spaces for planting or seating based on the materials chosen.
- Decking To Even Slopes
Decking may also be a great solution for these awkward garden spaces, as it, too, can create a flat terrace. However, unlike retaining walls, this new terrace can be used for outdoor seating and dining.
Decking can be installed to suit the unique shape and layout of your garden, in materials such as timber or composite. Timber decking can be painted in a range of shades, whether you choose traditional wood colours, dark greys or something bespoke like pastel paints, to create a visually appealing yet functional area in the garden.
- Low-Maintenance Planting
When soil erosion is a major concern, you want to reduce movement and impact as much as possible. This is why low-maintenance plants, such as lavender, ferns, coneflowers and ornamental grasses, are a great option for these awkward garden spaces.
They can provide colour, texture and scent throughout the year but do not need constant movement, fertilisation, or even watering to do so. The less work on the soil, the better when erosion is a concern, and these plants allow you to have natural elements without the work.
Angled Or L-Shaped Gardens
Angled and L-shaped gardens can struggle with varying soil conditions and sun exposure patterns. The dark corners of your garden may seem unusable, as plants can struggle to thrive here, and you don’t want to be sitting in the shade all the time. However, with these design tips, you can make the most out of these awkward garden spaces:
- Curved Paving And Patios
To work with the natural shape of your garden, curved pathways and patios can be installed. Instead of the traditional parallel shapes, curved and winding pathways can work with the organic flow of the land while also creating an attractive, accessible space for your family.
Using natural paving stones or elegant porcelain, a curved pathway can create a sense of adventure in the garden and ensure that no corner is neglected. The curve of these hardscape areas can soften the harsh angles of these awkward garden spaces and create a more attractive environment.
- Hidden Storage Or Retreats
Instead of working against the natural angles of your odd-shaped garden, you can also make them a feature within your garden design. These uneven angles or sharp corners can become ideal spaces for storage, such as shelving, storage boxes or even small sheds. Items can be safely stored away in the unused areas of your garden, ensuring they remain accessible without getting in the way of your garden design.
Alternatively, these odd corners or shaded spots can be used to create a private retreat. This can be a space complete with seating, whether an individual chair or a built-in bench, potted plants, and decorative items that perfectly align with your tastes. Whether you need a break from the family, want to meditate in the fresh air, or simply want to enjoy the outdoors in peace, your odd corners can be ideal.
- Focal Points For Balance
Separate each zone or identify its purpose with a bespoke focal point. Zoning is a great way to make use of awkward garden spaces, and this can be defined with focal points. From water features to designer plants or bespoke sculptures, each zone in your angled garden can be defined by a specific feature.
These features not only add visual interest to the areas but also set the tone for each part of the garden and can keep people interested. Focal points are a great way to draw the eyes to specific areas, but more importantly, avoid people looking too closely at the parts of the garden you don’t want to be seen.
Garden furniture, lighting, and water features are the best tools for this as they can be incorporated into all zones and highlight specific features you want to be seen.
Conclusion
An awkwardly shaped garden does not have to mean poor design, as there are various ways you can take advantage of the organic layout of your landscape. Working with professional garden designers and landscape gardeners, like our team at Landesigns, ensures that no corner of your garden goes unnoticed.
We respect all garden designs offered to us and will work with the design team to create an outdoor space that makes the best out of your environment. Complete with planting, furniture and decorative items, our constructions can make a garden that is as functional as it is beautiful.
Contact Us Today
To request a quote or consultation for your awkward garden space, please contact the team today.
