Once you know all about your site, exactly what you want from your garden, what inherited features are worth preserving and how much time you want to spend on maintenance, you can begin the design. To do this you will need squared or graph paper and a pencil, but to generate any useful ideas, first [...]

The use of different shapes is perhaps the single most important element in designing a garden. It is the chief tool with which a gardener defines the spaces and structures of a garden – his working vocabulary. In a really good garden, consideration will have been given to the shape and purpose of every component, [...]