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Hello and welcome to the Successful Garden Design Show. In this episode, we are going
to feature a garden that is sloping in a quick sketch challenge. So, I'll show you how
to put in steps and how to deal with retaining walls and changes in level. Welcome to the
Garden Design Show, it's my mission to demystify design to make it easier for you create your
dream garden. Properly planning your garden is as vital as properly planning your home.
I am Rachel Mathews and I've been a professional international garden designer for over twenty
years. I am also a best selling author and I teach garden design online. And we'll also be visiting inspiring gardens
around Europe and beyond to give you plenty of ideas
for your garden.
Now before we get going with this week's episode, I just want to quickly
tell you about a cool feature that I've discovered on YouTube recently. If you're
watching the video either on my blog or on YouTube, at the bottom you'll see a little
square, now if you click on that that will bring out the captions. So, we're having
each video transcribed, so say Hi to Erika who is busy transcribing this video for us
and that means you can then have the choice of having the captions in any language you
choose. So if English isn't your first language, this is a really useful feature or if you're
watching the video somewhere really noisy and you can't quite capture everything I'm
saying then you can bring up the captions. So, they're not there immediately, it does
take us sort of about four or five days to get everything done.
So, on with the show.
Now sloping gardens can feel quite challenging, especially if you're wanting to create different
changes in level an it's really important that you get it right. So, I am going to show
you my very simple method, it's called the ostrich method and yes, it is as it sounds,
you basically stick your head in the sand and completely pretend there aren't any
changes in level, but using this simple method will enable you to make sure you create something
that's simple and you easy to use. So, I'll now demonstrate exactly what I mean. Now the
garden I am going to do the quick sketch challenge for belongs to Allison who is in Scotland
in Edinburgh. Now she wants to really do the existing patio here and put in a new retaining
wall with some steps, but she also wants to take and board the rest of the garden so we're
basically going to tackle the level changes, but also do it in a way that makes the rest
of the garden more inviting. So, I've traced over the plan that Allison sent me and I've
just turned it around the other way because I find it a lit bit easier if I am designing
the garden from the view that it's going to be looked out from the house. So I put
in the existing elements of the garage, the drive and this is where the existing patio
goes, but she's open to changing the shape of that so that's why I just popped it in
pencil and then there is another bit of paving up here and around here some borders. So it's
lightly done at them moment, so what I want to do is just, she's already said she likes
curved shapes and the small gardens' curves are really good for making them larger. So,
I think something like that and then the first things that sort of sprang to mind was sort
of an oval lawn here. Yes if you've seen the quick sketch challenges before I do put
a lot of oval lawns in, one of the reasons is they work very well. When this is down
on the ground, it will make it look much larger and wider because your eye follows the shape
of that curve. So, it's very, very useful for that sort of thing. And then for the paving
here, if she's redoing that bit as well I probably put a curve in there or oval. It
doesn't matter if it's squared off particularly. Now she's got a cunning device in here where
she's cut a hole in the hedge or perhaps there is a gap and she's put a mirror with
an arch in. So we've got this false perspective so it makes the garden look sort of longer,
so we need to play along with that and have a little path. And what I might even be tempted
to do is pop a few stepping stones in, and then at the last one, carve a stepping
stone so it gets reflected back in the mirror and a bit of gravel and then that will make
that look even more realistic and then it's got the arch coming over it here. So that's
a very good idea. So now that's touching straight to the hedge, which is probably not
quite right but have you noticed although the main issue that Allison contacted me over
was the retaining wall, she's going to get a builder out as soon as possible although
it's quite tricky this time of year getting hold of anyone but when she finds someone
she's going to get this wall built. So that was the main focus, but I haven't even thought
about more particularly. I am just arranging the shape, then we can put the wall in and
the steps and all the other good stuff that's going to go with it. So I am not entirely
liking quite what I've done there. And again I am ignoring the shape because she said that
can move so making it simple as possible. So I am just sort of thinking in mind whether
we do the perfect curve from that garage point. That probably makes sense rather than have
the curve look like it's coming off to here. So visually from the house I think that's
probably better. Ok, so I am reasonably pleased with how the space is working. So this will
be lawn and what I would suggest is that they pop a brickage around this just to keep that
shape. So in Allison's e-mail she's got 745mil on a slight slope so the change in
level, so it's about 75 centimeters. So that's the slope on the entire garden, but
looking at this she's got just two steps so that looks about 50 centimeters there so
maybe if we put three steps in then it will be quite a gentle. Get down to the area there.
Now there's lots of things we can do with steps here and the retaining wall. What I
try and do with steps is to have them as wide as possible because if you put a retaining
wall and actually you can see it in the existing one, as soon as you put a wall up, your eyes
stops dead on that wall. So to make this garden feel larger, we need to get rid of that. So
basically wherever we've got plants, we could have a retaining wall in just this section
and then have steps down into the rest of the garden. So it's to say, there is various
things you can do. The simplest would be to run just one step here and then maybe do that,
so you've got that type of thing. Ok so we've got one, two and then down to the lawn
three. And it leads the eye down. And then the retaining wall would just be to here and
to there like so with a return on the steps there. So that's one way of doing it, if
we want to get a little bit more artsy and also this does take quite a section of lawn
out, another way of doing it is to look at making the lawn the dominant shape. So we could do this
like so and then put the steps in this this bit, like that.
So we've got minus 20, minus 40, minus 60. So, we got down 60 centimeters allowing 20-centimeter trek
for each of those steps. And then that will gently slope down to the rest of the garden.
I just want to double check the width of that step because you do need it to be safe because
the bit of step that's really useable is that section so- Oh it's 4foot wide, so
that's ample. Again the minimum trek is really abut 30 centimeters but I try and get
it in as 40 whenever possible. Again, to make it safe- especially if you've got kids and
older people running around the garden as they do. I think I prefer that, but then does
that cut down the patio, too much? So that's the next question. So that makes it three
meters there and now the existing patio was nearly four meters. So maybe that does cut
it down a bit too much, but then we could always move it, the whole thing back up to
where I originally had it which is about there. So we're going to make this probably almost
a circle, just a very chubby oval, so that we could make a bit more room on the patio
there. This section here would be a retaining wall, and it's slightly higher than the
patio and then this would be a brick edge around the step. And then these would be brick steps.
And then we've got the brick edge around the lawn. So I'll do a little sketch as well so that
you can see what I am talking about cause levels are quite tricky to picture.
And then you just pop in the plants all the way around. And then they can spill over there.
And then maybe this lawn probably does need to come around a little more, so not that
much is going to grow in front of that Leylandii hedge, but just a little bit of ground cover.
Alright, ok, so paving there. This bit is paved. Ok, so now let's just do a sketch.
Okay so that must curve in there.
Ok so we got our brick wall here and here. Just defining
patio edge, and then we got our steps going down to the lawn and then another brick edge
around that and then some wall paving here. So obviously it needs a lot more time spent
on it and to be drawn up properly but it gives you the idea how you arrange the space first
and then work out what you can do with the steps. And you know the more open you can
have it the better, in fact, I'd be tempted if there aren't sort of children likely
to be visiting the garden I'd be quite tempted to have this as the same height as the patio
and have some really dense plants in here as a barrier so you don't fall off and that
would make that feel even more open there. So I'll just tip the drawing board down
so you can the view down the garden as well. So there you go. Coming down at ground level,
you can see just how effective these curves are. They really sort of draw your eye down
the garden and the steps and the lawn and everything links in. And that will make the
space look a lot, lot bigger. So you know if you can't get away with not having any
height here at all, and just have the plants do it, I think that would look better. But
you know, Allison did want a retaining wall there, so I popped one in, but I think you
could probably do it. Just under the patio and just have that as a brickage. But anyway,
I'll leave that up to you. So do hope this episode has given you plenty of ideas of how
to tackle a sloping garden. Now if you'd like to learn exactly how you can design your own
garden step-by-step, do check out The Great Garden Formula online garden design course.
There is a third off between now and the end of March. Now The Great Garden Formula covers
all aspects of design in great detail. So if you're really keen to learn exactly what
to do to transform you garden, this is a great course. There is five main modules that walk
you through the entire design process and I share with you my formula that I've developed
over twenty years to make garden design so much easier. And it also comes with a survey
course and the plant expert, so you'll be able to know exactly which plants grow in
your garden just by looking at the leaves. But also there is lots of video tutorials
that walk you through every aspect of designing and as the course is 100% online you can access
the material as and when it suits you and also on the move as it's all iPad and tablet
compatible. And also you can download a sample to get a feel and see if it will be the right
course for you. So check out the course by clicking on the link beneath this video and
you'll get full information page on exactly what's included in the course. Now in the
next episode, we're going to looking at how you can do planting, how to choose the
right plants for your garden and how to combine them. So if you have any questions at all
about planting, schemes or choosing plants, so you can ask your question on the blog or
Facebook, on YouTube or on iTunes. And do of course please leave a review on iTunes
cause the more review that you leave, the more people are going to find the podcast
and the same goes for YouTube. So I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.