Top Garden Designers Reveal the Biggest Garden Design Mistake
I asked two of the UK’s best-known garden designers, James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift, about the most common garden design mistake.
Both have designed countless gardens across Britain and abroad. They’ve won garden show medals (and judged the most prestigious garden shows themselves!), written bestselling books and presented TV programmes.
Now they co-host The James and Joe Garden Show podcast — a witty chat about all things gardening – ‘except dead plants’ – for The Garden Collective.
I met them at Horatio’s Garden, Salisbury, where both have designed gardens for the charity. James is also a trustee of Horatio’s Garden, which creates beautiful, restorative gardens for patients in NHS spinal injury units.
We talked about how to design small, middle-sized and large gardens – and they agreed on the biggest garden design mistake that we amateurs most often make!
Top garden designers James Alexander Sinclair and Joe Swift of the James & Joe Garden Show reveal the biggest garden design mistake we amateurs often make!
And The Biggest Garden Design Mistake Is …
‘If you take one thing away from this conversation,’ says James. ‘It’s “think about your garden furniture.”
They have often designed a beautiful garden only to see clients add mass-market furniture, such as white plastic chairs. ‘White is a very difficult colour in any garden,’ says James.
‘Seating is important,’ he adds. ‘You should treat it as sculpture, because you spend far more time looking at it than sitting on it.’
Joe agrees: ‘Clients sometimes invest in beautiful landscaping, then go out and buy cheap plastic or plastic rattan furniture. It’s the biggest garden design mistake and completely undermines the design. Furniture is a major feature — it needs to be chosen with care.’
Both recommend treating furniture as part of the design itself, not an afterthought.
And when they shared the garden design tips (coming up) for small, middle-sized and large gardens, seating was one of the first things they mentioned.
So treat garden furniture as a major investment in your garden.
See how to choose the best garden furniture here.
Note how carefully chosen garden furniture makes a huge difference to Horatio’s Garden South West. It’s a mix of soft green metal, sympathetically designed wood and a long, curved garden wall at the right height to sit on.
Of course, re-designing a garden can be expensive. You may have to save on other areas to spend on good garden furniture. See How to Save Money on Garden Design.
Designing a Small Garden – The Priorities
Joe has designed countless small gardens – from balconies and roof gardens to courtyards and narrow city gardens:
‘Start with where you sit,’ he advises.
Then think about what you can see and what you want to hide. Go inside the house – what can you see from the windows and when you step out of the doors?
When it comes to small gardens, Joe says people often clutter them with too many little pots, features, or plants. ‘Another common garden design mistake is lots of small things — tiny pots, small plants, too much going on. It makes the space feel fussy,” he says.
Instead, he advises being bold. ‘Even in a small garden, think big. Use one or two large plants or pots instead of lots of smaller ones. You’ll give it structure.’
James agrees that scale and simplicity are key: I’d rather see three big plants than a hundred small ones. It’s easier to maintain and looks calmer.’
Don’t forget your boundaries – green them up
Another garden design mistake in small gardens is neglecting the boundaries. Fences or walls mark out and emphasise the size of the space. Soften and disguise the exact lines with climbers or planting. ‘Lose the boundaries visually,’ says Joe.
‘And don’t forget that you own the space in your garden up to the sky! People are sometimes afraid of putting too much in a small garden, but the more you can break it up visually at eye level, the bigger it will feel.’
James says he visited a small garden in London recently. It was completely overshadowed by three big trees in neighbours’ gardens.
But they filled it with planting – and when you step into it, it is a green and shady space, apparently a million miles away from the bustling city.
‘And forget about a lawn in a small garden,’ says James. ‘Fill it with planting instead.’
See more small garden planting advice in 5 top garden design tips (plus 2 mistakes to avoid).
This show garden (the Subaru Cocoon by Jewlsy Matthews and Mike McMahon) will be transferred to a small rather gloomy area at Horatio’s South West. It uses shade-loving plants and relies on texture, bark colour and foliage for a long season of interest in a small garden.
Designing a Middlesized Garden
So what about the typical middle-sized garden — that long plot behind a terraced house or the wide, shallow wedge around a new build?
James and Joe both say the principles are similar, whatever the size. ‘Garden design always starts with how you’re going to use the garden,’ says James.
‘Where will you sit? What will you look at? And what’s the relationship between the garden and the house?’
He identifies three essential considerations:
The style of the house – keep design consistent. James thinks that one garden design mistake is to try to have a contemporary garden around an old cottage or a roses-round-the-door cottage garden with a modern house.
Who uses the garden – think about what families, pets, or plant lovers all need.
The surrounding view – decide what to highlight or screen.
I don’t know what James and Joe would make of our middle-sized garden but at least we designed it with the help of a professional gardener friend, Matt Jackson, who explained the importance of the view from the house, the greater formality nearer the back door and the zones (one is round the corner to the right.) I know that our biggest garden design mistake is to have too much open lawn in proportion to the borders but my husband wanted a simple lawn to mow and having a large, flat open space with lawn was ‘part of the deal’ when we re-designed the garden.
Divide a middle-sized or larger garden into ‘zones’
Both Joe and James have lived in town houses with narrow long gardens.
They agree that middlesized gardens benefit from being divided into at least three zones or ‘rooms’, even if these are just changes in planting or surface. ‘You don’t need to divide up the garden with hedges,’ says Joe.
‘I often work in threes,” he explains. ‘A space by the house for eating or relaxing, a middle zone, and then another area at the end — maybe for seating, or something wilder. It gives you a reason to move through the garden.’
For the middle-sized garden, they both also emphasise the importance of seating areas in more than one place. ‘It gives the garden focus and rhythm,’ says James.
He adds that you don’t have to have your main seating area outside the back door. If the best light is at the bottom of the garden, then have a seating area there, rather than automatically using it for a compost heap.
The Horatio’s South West garden is divided into zones by low walls (which double up as seating), paths and planting. The work areas, such as the greenhouse, are the closest to the hospital building and the planting gets fuller as you get further away.
International Paul Bangay talks more about linking garden zones in Paul Bangay – garden design inspiration.
And see Matt Jackson’s Professional Insider Tips for Landscaping Your Garden.
Large Gardens: Blending with the Landscape
Joe recently moved to a larger, country garden of around two acres.
He has followed the same design principles as for small or middle-sized gardens, but in a larger garden, the views and the countryside are often more important.
‘I’ve opened up views the previous owner had blocked, and tried to echo the lines of the hills in the shapes of the planting,’ he explains. ‘It’s about making the garden feel comfortable in its setting.’
James adds: ‘Near the house you can have more colour and structure, but as you move outwards, let it soften — from cut grass to long grass, to woodland or meadow. It should bleed gently into the countryside. You’re not only opening up the garden to the countryside – you’re also pulling the countryside into the garden.’
Dividing larger gardens into zones, and allowing some areas to grow wilder can help minimise maintenance too.
If you want to keep maintenance down in a larger garden, James recommends choosing plants that spread.
(This is also Anne Wareham’s approach – see the Low Maintenance Garden That Really Looks Fabulous).
And both James and Joe have robot mowers, saying they’re the key to less lawn maintenance.
(Lawn expert David Hedges-Gower agrees, because robot mowers also allow clippings to go back into the soil, reducing the need for any lawn fertilisers and the regular mowing also discourages weeds. See Do You Need a Perfect Lawn for more.)
James and Joe’s chat about garden design is so informative and amusing – do see more of it here on video Garden Design Tips You’ll Actually Use – from James & Joe.
Horatio’s Garden: Beauty with Purpose
Our conversation took place at Horatio’s Garden Salisbury, one of a group of gardens designed for NHS spinal injury units around the UK. The charity was founded in memory of Horatio Chapple, a young man who was tragically killed aged 17. Gardens for spinal injuries patients was his original idea. Now they transform unloved NHS spaces into healing gardens for patients, families and staff.
‘It’s a huge privilege to be involved,’ says James, who designed the Scottish Horatio’s Garden and now serves as a trustee. ‘People in spinal injuries units are usually in hospital for months – or even years. They need contact with nature and the open air, and to get away from the hospital smells and sounds.’
Each Horatio’s Garden is carefully designed by leading landscape designers — including Cleve West, who created the Salisbury garden where we filmed.
The gardens are high-maintenance by design, full of seasonal colour, tended by head gardeners and volunteers, so that patients always have something uplifting to look at, whatever the time of year. ‘You can’t choose when you’ll have a spinal injury,’ says James, ‘so the garden has to look beautiful all year round.’
Before and After: Horatio’s Garden at Stoke Mandeville, designed by Joe Swift. Top photo of Stoke Mandeville by Eva Nemeth, reproduced permission of Horatio’s Gardens.
Why Gardening Is Good for the Soul
James and Joe’s Garden Show podcast, created with The Garden Collective, covers everything from serious topics such as mental health and gardening, to lighter moments (like the best gardening snacks).
One of their most popular episodes so far is ‘Why Gardening is Good For the Soul. ‘It’s about mindfulness and wellbeing,’ says Joe. ‘It’s our most serious episode so far – although it’s not serious all the way through. And it really struck a chord.’
As James puts it: ‘Gardens make you feel better. Here at Horatio’s, we see that every day.’
Listen to The James and Joe Garden Show wherever you get your podcasts — and for more design insights, see their work with The Gardening Collective.
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