Glasgow South: Stylish Chill-out Garden Design in Giffnock

Welcome to another project article in our Garden Design Portfolio Series. This garden has been designed by Nicky Patterson and will be built by the team of garden designers and landscapers at GardenImprovements.com.

The design was commissioned by Mark R from Williamwood; in-between Clarkston and Giffnock in the southside of Glasgow in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

His brief is:

To provide a garden area that will look great without the requirement for heavy maintenance
Build several seating areas to use different areas and aspects within the space
A simple water feature
Create a space suitable for hosting parties and for relaxing in
A budget of around £10K

The original space is overgrown and scarred by the recent building work on the extension to the house. The couple have installed concertina doors which open the full length of a stunning living room to bring the garden and the house together – so it is important to get some good angles and areas within this plot to befit the quality and finish of the recent build.

The colour palette indoors is stylish, simple and monochromatic – a scheme I am keen to replicate in this outdoor room. I have drawn inspiration too from the furnishings indoors which were cubic and rectangular and I have developed this into the shapes and form used in the constitution of the garden elements.

The structure follows a simple journey path through the space from the living room, embellished by the wants of the client where desired. A large slate terrace forms the main functional element within the garden – perfect for entertaining in numbers. From here we can view the visual feast waiting within the rest of the garden; a reflective pool with it’s ‘floating’ path and bursts of green shoots creates intrigue and a pleasureable hop across reveals an inviting ‘lounger’ patio – host to a cascade water feature which brings the garden to life and movement.

This geometric approach to the design ensures that each element within the garden can be seen as a feature in it’s own right as no two shapes will be the same and each will be offset and balanced by another as can be seen in the constitution of the paths and patios here. This ‘journey’ method is of course contrived but is a useful device when matching some purpose with the client’s design brief. Sometimes an artificial journey will work better than a natural one because the user will sense value in something being created especially for them.

The cascade water feature pools into a rill which follows down into the reflective pool. The rill heightens the audio and visual qualities of the garden – and will also act as a handy wine and beer cooler!!

The chunky and purposeful rectangles of the hard landscaping are offset and soften by the slender and elegance of spires of cypress, some chamomile strips (accross the path) and the horizontal lines of the new fencing that will surround the new space bolstering the coninuity,

The chamomile strips are mimicked on the opposite side of the pond by strips of dark granite setts which will create some curiosity and delight for the user.