Your start-from-scratch garden design guide - 22 garden style ideas + expert garden design tips

A bumper edition of the Middlesized Garden's garden style ideas and top garden designer interviews - with everything you need to start designing your own garden from scratch. 22 garden style ideas, plus tips and advice from top garden designers.
00:00 Welcome to the start-from-scratch garden design guide
00:20 22 garden styles to inspire
27:50 Starting the practical side of garden design - what you need to know with Pollyanna Wilkinson Garden Design (www.pollyannawilkinson.com/)
42:03 Five top garden design tips plus the top two mistakes to avoid! with Charlotte Rowe and Tomoko Kawauchi of Charlotte Rowe Garden Design: www.charlotterowe.com/
54:01 Garden design makeover - Posy Gentles on how to apply the principles of garden design to a shallow wide garden. www.posygentles.co.uk/
1:01:10 How to choose garden furniture video: • How to choose the best...
For garden ideas, gardening advice, garden design and landscaping ideas for your garden or backyard, subscribe to the Middlesized Garden KZbin channel here: / themiddlesizedgardencouk
Whether you love English garden style, cottage gardens or contemporary urban gardening, The Middlesized Garden has gardening advice and garden ideas for you.
Weekly videos cover gardening advice and garden design - from small space gardens to middle-sized garden landscaping - plus garden tours and tips for container gardening.
The Middlesized Garden practices sustainability, wildlife gardening and no till methods. If your garden backyard is smaller than an acre, join us and enjoy your garden even more!
The Middlesized Garden Complete Guide to Garden Privacy is available in Kindle or paperback in 13 countries (in English only). If you'd like your garden to feel more private, click here for availability in your country: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.u...
#gardening #gardendesign #backyardgarden
For small and middlesized backyards and gardens....
See The Middlesized Garden blog: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/
For Amazon storefront see: www.amazon.com/shop/themiddle...
Note: links to Amazon are affiliate which means I get a small fee for qualifying purchases. It doesn't affect the price you pay and I only recommend things I use myself or really think you'd like!
More garden ideas on Pinterest:www.pinterest.co.uk/midsizega...
Twitter: / midsizegarden
Facebook: / themiddlesizedgarden

[@bettinaschmid1158]

Thank you, Alexandra! What a wonderful video. You explained everything so well!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you so much!

[@budj13]

This is a wonderful resource for those of us who are starting from scratch with a garden design. Thank you!

[@labdian]

This is an absolutely amazing video. I'm very thankful to you, Alexandra, and your very knowledgeable guests. I'll be watching it over and over many times. The first time I usually "watch" your videos while cooking or weeding or doing some housework. I enjoy the narrative so much. And then I definitely watch it again, this time focusing on the screen to see all the things I've heard about and imagined previously.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you so much - that's lovely to hear.

[@adrabruzzese7610]

Phenominal video. Thank you Alexandra! Informative and very enjoyable to watch.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@juliabinford6500]

This inspired me to pause the video in order to assess how certain ideas could work in my own garden. I must have gone outside 10 times before finishing it:) Thank you!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@LeanneD4]

Love this compilation design video. Thank you so much!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it! I thought long and hard about whether people would want a long video like this, but then I thought they could just stop watching if they didn't like it!

[@nobody-xs3gc]

It took me a few days to finish this video just so I can take notes. Thank you for the always informative videos!!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad it was helpful!

[@barbaracole4314]

Such a natural looking place , thx for the lovely tour

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@penelopehammerton2907]

Thank you Alexandra, really enjoyed this video. During lockdown l did a complete makeover of my garden, but still found it useful to look at all the different styles to see if l can make improvements anywhere. And as you know, no garden is ever finished, and l am busy right now making an improvement 😁🧑‍🌾☕

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

You're so right, it's a constantly evolving process.

[@jcl5345]

I think the dark grey/charcoal look for fences is a fad. Sure you can say this color helps to recede a fence to make a garden look larger (not completely on board with the concept), and the color may pop some plants, but it's ubiquitous, it's brought to our attention constantly for no reason other then that the "designers" have a new, fun fashion. Personally, I think there's a kind of looming, menacing look to it. I think designers use this hue to demonstrate that they are sophisticated and on trend. This will fade along with other passing fancies in garden design. Great looks such as white picket fences (beloved by many, popular through the years), beautiful woods and stone are the way to go in my opinion.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

You're probably right, although I think it will open up into a much wider range of colours in fences and walls (very much in evidence in this year's Chelsea Flower Show. And the white picket fence, as you say, is charming and timeless, but it's about defining a front boundary (where you need to be quite definite about where your land starts and stops), so white works perfectly - a white picket fence wouldn't often be the right choice for a back boundary, where privacy and supporting plants is as important as marking a boundary. Beautiful woods and stone are fabulous, I agree, though not in everyone's price range.

[@jcl5345]

Thank you, very true, we'll always see variety as soon as someone does something different. Great reply, I really love your channel, one of my very favorites.@@TheMiddlesizedGarden

[@katebettesworth2638]

I have to disagree. My garden is set in a woodland setting a wild wasteland. My fence was originally a red/brown. It went silver and had green algae all over it. My garden simply blended into the tree stand beyond. Now, I worked blinking hard and spent a pretty penny to design and plant my garden just to have it fade away into the distance. I painted my 6ft fence black and hey presto! My came to life

[@MysticFIREFLY]

thank you so very much - I needed to hear your wisdom today. Such great Education.

[@eileenchang2173]

Hi Alexandra, thanks again for such a comprehensive video. I needed some guidance and inspiration as I have experimented over the last three years and would like to bring some harmony to my gardens. 🌸❤️🇨🇦

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad it was helpful!

[@EatingAnElephant]

Hello Alexandra! I haven't been able to watch your videos for a while, we just moved (again) into a 5000 sq foot ranch home on a working cattle/sheep farm so we have been a little out of sorts. The beauty of it is that we have a great area to start our herbaceous boarder and veg gardens. There are a few established ornamental trees along with, of course, lots of live oaks, long leaf pines, magnolias and a lovely well established willow oak. We practice what's called chaotic gardening, mostly because we plant things and something else grows. LOL I love the cottage garden look and will likely create the garden mostly like that. I so appreciate this video, it comes at just the right time! Thank you for another well thought out and produced video full of great information and ideas! Time to go make some plans!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

What an exciting project! Good luck.

[@joanofarc6402]

You absolutely create the best gardening video with so much inspiration AND useful content plus TIPS I use all the time. I’ve watched this channel for years. I’m still jealous the UK has such a longer growing season than we in Midwest USA. Big Hugs from outside Chicago, USA.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you so much! We are very lucky with our mild, changeable but actually quite adaptable climate, although we still grumble about not enough sun in the summer.

[@dawndawn6946]

Such great information! It’s good to hear this over and over again for me. Due to a storm knocking down some trees, I have a new blank slate to design. I’m terrified!😆

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Exciting though - I hope the tree didn't do too much damage!

[@eaulaosolidaritea363]

Wonderfully useful, informative and beautiful; thank you.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@dustyflats3832]

Nice ideas! I want to do a sitting area and it’s so difficult here because of wildlife as everything needs a barricade. Not sure what style it would be-cottage country barricade? I have a huge open area and think I would like to fence in front to backyard to be able to plant freely. It means having to manage gates for driveways, but there really isn’t another way as these deer will make Swiss cheese out of arborvitae shrubs and in a drought basically anything. I seen a neighbor’s down the road and they ate the trees up to where they could reach. He has black netting on them now and luckily they are growing back. Thanks for the jammed pack video-well done.

[@mariemcgrath8681]

Fantastic video, lots of variation & styles.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@anmnou]

You are a treasure!! I really appreciate your videos...I am learning so much!! Thank you.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

I'm so glad!

[@esscee2520]

Thank you for this. It is a wonderful overview of garden styles and how to design a garden, and really useful as a directory to the really valuable back catalogue of interviews and visits that you have already done. Next time you are down in Aussie, you should pop over the Tasman and check out some NZ gardens :)

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

I would love to - time and the cost of travel have deterred me so far, but never say never!

[@pamd1861]

Another great video thank you!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@2010lrain]

So much to take in and learn but thankfully I can watch it anytime. 😊. Very informative regarding the styles and planting. Thank you 👍

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@FLlife]

Excellent! And so long - what a treat!

[@enieni2379]

Glad I have found this channel. Many wonderful ideas and the lady has great knowledge about gardening. This video also made me realize that gardening is so complicated and unless I hire a professional, probably I will never have a beautiful garden.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Plants are very resilient, so don't give up! Plant the ones you like and see what happens. Good luck!

[@enieni2379]

@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Plants are very resilient. I loved this sentence so very much. Thank you.

[@kerryjean2223]

My favourite colour behind anything either inside or outside, the walls, the fence or a rendered building is a 'mustard yellow' for making things pop.

[@kerryjean2223]

I don't own or want a TV, so my couch/lounge is positioned just 5 feet from my sliding glass door and fixed window pain. I get the winter afternoon sunshine and yes my garden beckons me outside continually. I have worn out screen door rollers and possibly even worn down the track in less than 7 years.

[@kerryjean2223]

I've shared this helpful video with my niece whom currently has a country home being built on a 17 acre property near Clare in South Australia.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

That sounds like a great colour.

[@cooksuncookingtahirali]

Gardening is an art and not everyone is gifted with it but everyone has the potential to learn it. I like your style and big thumb 👍

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@lynnpurse]

What a fantastic video on home garden design! I especially loved your interviews with professionals and their before and after images but everything was so well done and inspirational. ❤

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@rosemama9995]

Another great video Alexandra. I so appreciate the research and throroughness that goes into your videos. I’ve been describing my 2 acre garden in Virginia as eclectic as the different garden rooms have different feelings (formal, prairie/meadow, woodland, rose, Japanese). After watching your video, I think it may be English country style- not surprising as I’ve been influenced by many visits to gardens in England especially in Kent and the Cotswolds. Once again, thank you!

[@sandyboost3337]

Excellent content. Thank you!

[@erinblack1804]

marvelous video!!! Thank you so much!

[@FLlife]

Even though I have my garden already designed, this was a great way to take a look at it from a fresh perspective. You did such a great job in putting this together!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you! On a technical level it was quite a struggle as the file kept corrupting because it was so large, so it's very nice to hear that.

[@FLlife]

@@TheMiddlesizedGarden well, it was excellent in every way!

[@wiggiatlarge]

As a retired garden designer landscaper I natural have an interest in Alexandras informative videos, just one point re formal gardens, sadly box blight and the caterpillar moth have both ravaged many box plantings throughout the country. I personally lost all my box in a very short space of time three years ago, with topiary tyhere is no way you can repair the damage and many big spirals and globes ended on the bonfire. If you are going the formal route think carefully before commiting to box, stick to Yew for larger objects and try alternatives such as Japanese holly for smaller ones or you may find that your box has succumbed almost overnight to pest and disease.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Oh, yes, I do agree.

[@pamelatidwell6422]

I so enjoy your videos. They are full of wonderful information and help stir my imagination to adapt the ideas so that they work in my little piece of paradise. Thank you!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@suesandlin-plaehn3565]

Love your programs!!!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@irishcottagerenovation9900]

Thank you for a great video, I love listening to all the different designers and picking up tips. I’m fortunate enough to have acquired a large area to plan, do you have any tips for large areas ?

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

It's very much the same as for the smaller ones - decide what you want to do and what you want to see both from the house and then out in the garden looking back at the house, plus any practical considerations (such as do you want to break up the garden with hedges to create wind breaks), then work it out from there. One advantage to a larger garden is that you can do a bit at a time - start with what you want to see or do close to the house and then slowly work outwards. I do have one 'larger garden' video and will be doing more next year: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJOXp3eFhdikgbc I also think that larger gardens can be more forgiving - if you make a mistake in a small garden, you'll be close enough to see it, but in a larger garden, something that's not quite right can just disappear into everything else that's going on.

[@irishcottagerenovation9900]

@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thank you so much, will act upon what you have advised. Also thank you for link on video and always look forward to all your gardening videos and I go back to older ones for reference it’s so helpful.

[@adz5bneweng589]

Fantastic video - thank you!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@SMElder-iy6fl]

I always love seeing Posy's own garden!

[@teresejohnson6767]

Incredibly helpful and inspiring! Thank you so much!

[@dowth3]

What a terrific video; it's a visual reference book for garden design! Nicely balanced with narrative, interviews, information, images and explanations. Very well done! It was a pleasure to watch. Subscribed!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it - it's the first time I've done that kind of format, but I will definitely do more.

[@jackhsiehhautecouture]

I love all your videos. So much information to learn. And visuals

[@OnTheWindOfBirth]

Excellent! Thank you

[@UpstateGrammy]

Thank you, Alexandra! I will be saving this video and referring to it in the future.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@pennywilkendorf2925]

Great ideas. Thank you!

[@geraldinefields1730]

Thank you.

[@grettalemabouchou6779]

Thankyou Madame.

[@monikacichon3825]

Loved this video, gave me key steps and few tips on how to design our garden ❤

[@user-sb7ip7tk7r]

Дякую за чудове відео.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Будь ласка.

[@dalereid4199]

The ultimate guide

[@Flower_hoarder]

💚💚💚ENJOYED💚💚💚

[@stephaniesharkey3538]

Thank you for-all the great info!!!!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

You are so welcome!

[@ChihuahuaCheech]

Another excellent show. This was so helpful. I loved seeing so many different style gardens compared one against the other in roughly the same sized spaces, as well as the special cases were a different approach was needed. It was extremely useful and inspiring. Thank you very much!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@amylouise9853]

Gosh what a reminder that everything is relative hearing Melbourne described as quite temperate. As a Sydney gardener I think of Melbourne as having a much more extreme climate and often envy Melbournian gardeners being able to grow some plants that need a colder winter to do well.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Whereas we think Sydney is extreme because it's so much hotter (by 'we', I mean the UK! )

[@boldpicturesgardeners]

Great information ❤❤

[@carolkelly638]

Very informative video….

[@mkats5102]

Great video!! Was very handy and informative!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jaqmackie]

Very interesting 💚💚

[@pollopacheco1891]

Love your Channel ❤thanks 😊

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

thank you!

[@folee_edge]

Cottage Garden for the win. Thank you for the excellent content 🙏

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that.

[@alisonsneed3707]

You really packed a lot of valuable info in this. This is quite the list!

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@josefalawson3049]

I have a delimma about my soon to be fence. Black or white.? I welcome your input, thank you.

[@user-ly4lc7fp4r]

Thank you Alexandra for a very informative video I am from Kuwait and I am redesigning my front patio and I found your videos a great help I’m glad I found you on youtube

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that.

[@sandralewis1689]

WOW! So many great things I never would have thought of! I currently don't really have a "garden" or "landscaping", just raised veg and flower beds and random fruit trees but this has given me so many ideas of how to make small changes that will make it more coherent and beautiful. Thank you so much.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@mattie-lisapeka7072]

Great overview

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@user-cz9mx4km5h]

Wonderful video

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you!

[@bewoodford2807]

Great update on your former garden design video, Andrea. very interesting. I will shortly own a house which has a small courtyard style garden. It is in a coastal village and I am looking to design the garden for ease of maintenance and gives beautiful relaxed, holiday feel. Would it be appropriate to use phormiums, cordylines, grasses , lavender etc as my evergreens? The garden is already gravelled and faces south. It needs to have some kind of shade and I was thinking of building a pergola, clothed with climbers? What do you think? Than k you. happy gardening :-)

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Pergola with climbers sounds great. The cordylines generally do OK here in the UK, so they're hardy down to about 6C/21F but I've found from personal experience that a harsh spell in the winter can turn the phormiums brown. That may not be so likely directly on the coast as it rarely freezes right by the sea in the UK, but worth considering.

[@bewoodford2807]

Thank you for your reply and thoughts. Most useful. @@TheMiddlesizedGarden 😃

[@chrisdooney5374]

Great video some lovely ideas, would love to see a tour of your own garden it looks lovely especially the veg area , any chance of a garden tour ?

[@Crime-Politics]

Sofa set with hydrangeas spillling in from behind 27:55

[@19cassiopeia]

Dear Alexandra, thank you for the wonderful videos that you put out for all of us, they are so well made, and they show how earnestly you worked on them. When you stand on your doorstep, the climber/shrub on your left hand side has white tipped leaves and some times pink tipped leaves. I remember you telling the name of it in some video, but can't find out. Please can you tell me the name of the plant?

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Thank you! It's actinidia kolomikta or ornamental kiwi and it's the plant that more people ask about than any other!

[@rpbrear]

Great content! I have a hectre of undeveloped land with a tiny house in the middle - a blank slate if you will. This video helped a lot, thank you.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

That's lovely to hear.

[@ladydeerheart1]

My garden has a little of each style possible. I'm blessed with a huge yard so I've made rooms with different styles. When my mother passed I created a room with her garden style, which was rustic since she lived in Texas, and all of her buckets, washtubs and pitchforks. Her name was Lillie so it's full of daylillies. Thank you so much for this informative video. I have a hard time picking just one style because I love ALL the plants and ALL the styles. I especially love the look of a formal sunken garden but I'll have to keep researching that. It seems like a huge undertaking. 🤟❤️🥰💐🥰❤️🤟

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

That sounds beautiful

[@TERFClub]

Please don’t forget the Kitchen garden. Patio Garden, Rose Garden, Allotment.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

ooh, yes.

[@sofielys5452]

❤

[@indimusiq]

I'm interested to know how many of these beautiful gardens are established and maintained by the owner?😮😂

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

Most of them are - certainly all the gardens I feature in detail are 'real' gardens where the owner is the driving force, although more than one person may have input into them, and some people will have had some help from a gardener or a garden designer. In the ideas sections, there are some show gardens featured, but as I said in the video, show gardens are there for ideas, but you can't copy them exactly, and I think it's fairly clear which are show gardens and which are 'real' gardens. I imagine there are gardens where the owners have no input because a designer creates them and a professional gardening team maintains them, but I think those are mainly for the very rich who live in multiple homes around the world, and I haven't featured any on this channel.

[@richardhigel5612]

Very nice video. Have you considered doing a collaborative interview with Paul T of Paul T’s world KZbin channel or Linda Vader? Thank you.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

I've done a collaboration with Linda.

[@RoseMary-vs3io]

👍👌✨

[@adz5bneweng589]

Stumpery gardens?

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

I'm very fond of stumpery gardens but I think they're usually a part of a garden rather than a whole garden. They're generally at the moment, an element or space within 'English Country Garden' style. But if someone had a small woody garden, then, yes the whole garden could be a stumpery.

[@FireflyOnTheMoon]

Loads of concrete in the Eco City Garden isn't "eco friendly", no.

[@TheMiddlesizedGarden]

It's stone, but I take your point.