If the recent garden design focus on sharp angles, straight lines and formal seating areas leaves you yearning for a more organic, natural scheme, here are a few ideas for a relaxed, natural garden style.
Wildflowers and wilding
Increasingly, stately homes and large estates are giving over sections to wildflower meadows and wilding schemes, leaving nature to take over. You might not have a spare acre or two, but if you have a border or unused patch, however small, why not dig it over, sow packets of mixed wildflowers and see what happens? Many of our native hedgerow favourites like columbine, cornflowers and forget-me-not produce delightful flowers in vibrant colours and need no effort from a gardener to thrive.
Soften your edges
Allowing mosses and low-growing flowering plants like campanula to spread over path edges creates a softer, less structured look. Climbers like jasmine, honeysuckle and clematis trained up walls and fences also blur regimented horizontal lines to make for a more relaxed overall scheme. Brick or stone pathways with gaps between the hard elements can be an uncomplicated way to encourage greenery to fill the spaces. Rather than raking out the mosses in your lawn, leave them there and mow as normal for a soft, pillowy lawn.
Choose rustic wooden furniture
Using natural materials like wood and natural rattan will enable your garden furniture to blend with its setting. For a traditional, earthy aesthetic, try the rustic solidity of Charles Taylor garden furniture and accessorise with natural fabrics like linen cushions and woollen throws.
The beauty of a natural garden is that nature does most of the hard work!
