1.   Lighting

Grey Bistro Set | Antique Gold Moroccan Lantern | Aged Green Garden Urn

Hang lanterns from brackets on walls or fences or place them on tables to create atmosphere for summer evenings with the twinkle of candlelight glowing in the dark. There are also lots of solar lights available now, from jam jar lights to hang in trees to strings of lights to go on a fence or archway.

2.   Rugs

Monochrome Outdoor Rug | The Marseille Garden Bench | Gothic Arch Outdoor Mirror

Who would have thought we would have outdoor rugs? I think they are a wonderful idea and a great way to create a focal point on your terrace and add a bit of colour and pattern to hard landscaping. Put one in front of a bench or under the garden table and it instantly feels like a summer dining room.

3.   Mirrors

Decorative Garden Mirror | Round Chedworth Zinc Planters

Mirrors work in the same way outdoors as they do indoors by reflecting light and creating a focal point. Hang a mirror on a wall, fence, or shed to increase the sense of space and let the reflections enhance the view. It also makes a nice surprise to turn a corner in a garden and see a mirror, something normally associated with the indoors.

4.   Seating

The Lille Garden Bench | The Sophia Garden Bench

A table and chairs is essential for an outside room to enjoy alfresco dining with friends and family, or for a glorious sundowner on a warm summer evening a little bistro set in a sunny spot. Depending on the size of your garden it’s a good idea to have various types of seating in different areas. A bench placed where you can sit and have a natter with a friend, or a solo seat just to stop and perch for a minute and admire the view.

5.   Pots and planters

Round Chedworth Zinc Planters | Zinc Effect Planter with Stand

Fill spaces with an array of planters filled with evergreens for backdrop and then add drama with seasonal displays of colour. Unify the scheme by using planters of the same colour or material and then vary sizes so you have a more interesting vignette. A planter on a stand is a great way of adding height to a display or standing alone in a small space (much more interesting at waist height than sitting forlornly on the ground). It’s so easy to ring the changes with the seasons as well so that you have year-round interest. If you are unsure what to plant a quick visit to the garden centre will show you what is flowering at that time of the year for a quick fix of colour.

Well I hope that’s given you a few ideas on how to create the perfect outdoor room. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your garden is, a small courtyard garden looks just as fabulous as a big garden when you add a few indoor bits outside amongst the planting. Even on a chilly day you will want to throw a rug around you and sit outside – so therapeutic to be out in garden with a cup of tea or a glass of wine rather than closeting yourself indoors.

Jacqui x

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Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui & Amelia Brooks

I’ve posted before about the progression in my garden from its conception and promised more photos for this season, so Amelia took a few shots for me of my favourite bits – mainly seating areas as I do like a vignette with a seat – even though I don’t sit down often as I’m too busy deadheading etc. When I do sit down its usually to decide how to change the planting and improve the vignette.

This is the terrace next to the house with box hedged borders that I change seasonally from tulips in spring to dahlias, and whatever else takes my fancy in summer. It’s quite labour intensive to do this but I love dahlias and tulips so much it’s the best way to really get my fill of them. And a lovely metal chair to sit and admire the view.

A close up of the garden mirror my mother gave me for my birthday – doesn’t it look fabulous with the flowers reflected in it?

The other side of the terrace with yet more seats! A bench for displaying my lovely cushions and a little grey bistro set for that morning coffee.

Further down the garden is the larger table and chairs for when we want to eat alfresco – or just sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the view.

Another chair hidden away at the bottom of the garden behind the summer house. You can’t have too many seats I say! There are more tucked away in the garden in odd places in case I want to sit and contemplate life for a moment. What do you think, too many seats or do you have even more? And what do you think to Modern Gardens? Even my girls enjoy looking through it for ideas and they are not gardeners so I think it appeals to quite a broad range of, shall we say, design savvy people.

Jacqui x

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Photography: Amelia Brooks

No cake provided but I think my mother’s garden is worthy of a mention here so Amelia took a few photo’s for you to peruse.  It’s a small plot and there isn’t any grass (my father hated cutting grass) but it’s lush and verdant and very stylish.  Lots of sitting places to admire the view with a glass of wine in the sun – which really is my mother’s main criteria for a garden! 

She’s a very well travelled lady, so picked up a fair few decor bits on her travels.  She bought the lanterns when she used to live in Hong Kong (which needless to say is how she came to get her nickname ‘Hong Kong Granny’ from the kids) and she’s often keen to let people know that apparently Prince Charles has the same ones!  

I think her garden is a fantastic example though of what can be done with a smallish suburban plot, don’t you think?

Of course, having that many pots to water is by no means low maintenance, so that’s definitely something to consider when designing your garden, but it certainly makes for a beautiful and peaceful place to sit with a glass of wine. 

Well hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little garden tour?  I’d love to know which is your favourite part in the comments below.  

Jacqui x

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Photography: Amelia Brooks

My garden was built from scratch 3 years ago and is now maturing and looking luscious so thought you might like to see some photos of its progression, although I need to take more this summer to see the current changes.   A garden should fit in with your lifestyle and your capabilities so plan out how you want to use the space, how much gardening you want to do and how much entertaining you want to do in the garden. My 6 top tips when redesigning your garden are:

September 2012

1. Position your terrace (or terraces) to make the most of the sunshine for alfresco dining. Check out where the sun rises and sets on your garden. Mine faces south east so I get sun from early morning until about 4pm and then it starts to move around the side of the houses so in the evening I only get sun at the bottom of the garden.   To be able to eat outside in the sunshine I have two terraces, both with a table and chairs – one by the back door and one near the bottom of the garden so I can catch the sun at any time. I don’t think there is anything more distressing than eating in the shade in this cold climate.

September 2012

2. Check out your fences! I made this mistake as I knew one of my fences wasn’t very sturdy but ignored it, to my cost. I now have to have a new fence put in and it will create havoc in my flower beds and will have to be replanted with climbing plants that were starting to establish.

January 2013

3. Add height to your garden – a flat garden is a boring garden. Trees, pergolas, arches and trellis all add height and create more interest. If you are going to plant trees it’s essential to do the research and plant appropriate sized trees, my son the tree surgeon spends a lot of his life cutting down overgrown trees due to their unsuitability for their allotted space. Another pet hate of his is ivy, which I have to say I love for its ability to clothe walls and fences which makes for a gorgeous green backdrop, but again, choose wisely. There are so many varieties available online and if they are kept in check there is nothing more attractive than a green wall. A mistake I made was to plant two climbing roses over an arch that grew too big for the space so we could hardly get through the middle of the arch (and they had wicked thorns) so they have just come out and I will have a small climbing rose and a clematis to flower through it instead.

May 2013

4. I think every garden should have a summerhouse, not only because it’s more available space to grow climbers up but for their peaceful retreat feeling. My aunt and uncle play scrabble and drink wine in theirs in the evening sunshine – isn’t that lovely? Again think about positioning for the sunshine, there is nothing worse than a dismal shady summerhouse.

May 2014

5. Plant plenty of evergreens otherwise your garden is going to look desolate in the winter. A good back drop of carefully chosen evergreens gives a green structure to a garden all year round and allows perennials and annuals to glow against the green. I have a boxwood parterre that has finally grown enough to look stunning planted with tulips in the spring and annuals in the summer and it’s still a joy in the winter.

May 2014

6. Research your terrace materials carefully. Mine is Chinese sandstone (I think) and looked stunning for a couple of years with a golden glow to it but is now so porous that everything marks it – even a muddy footprint can’t be washed off! Consequently I have to pressure wash it several times a year which is only increasing the problem and still I can’t remove algae from the shady areas. So the moral of the story is buy the best you can afford but make sure it’s durable. And to me decking is a no go as it has a short life span, is slippery in the wet and needs constant recoating of varnish or paint.

August 2014

August 2014

Well that concludes my little lecture for the day. I have plenty more to say, particularly about plants, but I’ve been told not to write another essay so I hope you enjoy the photos of my garden progression and I will post more later in the summer as it’s maturing.

Otherwise, if your garden is already a bit more mature and you’re looking to furnish it, do have a browse of our garden decor and furniture.

Jacqui x

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Photography: Amelia Brooks

Walking around my own local area I have noticed so many front gardens turned into dismal and depressing grey carparks. It’s detrimental to our mental health as well as our physical health. Gardens, plants, greenery, – they add so much pleasure visually that surely they have to be worth the effort? Do we want our streets turned into carparks with no visual joy to be had? When I redid my small front garden a couple of years ago (shown above) I used gravel for the car standing area (which allows rain to soak away) and then a small area of soil filled with shade loving evergreens which take very little work to maintain, plus a couple of large pots under the front window to add seasonal interest. It can be as simple as a window box or a tub by the front door to create some green in our urban areas; surely we can all manage that?

The campaign started with the launch of Britain in Bloom, whereby the RHS has set a three year target to transform 6,000 unloved grey spaces into thriving planted up spaces. We can all contribute to this campaign by considering our own front gardens and what we can do to add greenery and joy to everyone’s lives and help the planet as well. Take a look at the RHS if you want some ideas about how to green up your own space and get some more information on the environmental issues.

Jacqui x

‘Greening Grey Britain Campaign’ written by Jacqui Brooks

Photo credit: Amelia Brooks

The chair was £5 from a charity shop and I painted it black and then asked a carpenter who was doing some work on my house to take the seat out and fit a wooden box in the base and he drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage.

Before filling with compost put a few crocks in the bottom to stop soil clogging the drainage holes.

The chair was planted up last autumn with pansies from B & Q’s range of tea bag plants which are a great idea as they are very eco-friendly – no polystyrene packaging to clog up landfill. I also added some small ivy, a grass and a heuchera for added interest from the extensive range of evergreens at B & Q. Initially I planted a couple of sweet williams but they were crowding the pansies so I pulled them out and the grass had to go as it was lost in the mass of pansies.

The photo was taken in June when everything had filled out nicely although the ivy will take a while to climb around the back of the chair. I added a few diascia to trail down the base and give a shot of pink. A pretty addition to any garden and a great way of adding colour if you have limited space. It’s also very easy to replant when you fancy a change. The pansies could be swapped for summer annuals such as cosmos or pelargoniums but leaving the evergreens so you always have a basic structure of planting to add to whatever the season.

Jacqui x

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Amelia and Jacqui Brooks

‘How to Make a Chair Planter’ written by Jacqui Brooks

This post was sponsored  by B&Q

I had the most heavenly day, helped of course by the lovely weather and the fact that, quite by chance, we managed to park right next to the entrance – always handy for ferrying purchases to the car.  I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about how it would be as I hadn’t read up about the event but from the moment we arrived I was blown away by the styling at the entrance, followed up by wine tasting as you enter the marquee.  What a way to start the day!

The styling of the whole event was outstanding with four feature areas by different designers, even my daughters loved the whole vibe of the marquee and that says something as my ramblings on gardening falls on very deaf ears.  And of course the food was delicious, which always helps.

The beautiful Burford Garden Company stand.

Throughout the three days there was an extensive selection of gardening related talks – unfortunately we only managed to attend the one by the delightful Chris Beardshaw (I must admit to having a crush on Chris).   And of course lots of lovely specialist plant stalls with knowledgeable owners – some of whom I had heard of before but others to add to my list when sourcing plants.  We watched Peter Dibble weaving a willow obelisk – he makes it look so easy but I don’t think I will be attempting it anytime soon!  I bought one for my youngest son (the only gardener in the family) to inspire him, as learning how to weave willow is on his to do list.

Peter Dibble at work.

Of course I came away with lots of plants – I say of course because it’s compulsory to buy plants when surrounded by so many beautiful options and, as I said to my girls when they squeezed into the small space available to them in the car on the way home, it would be rude not to.

A stunning display of terrariums by The Urban Botanist.

There was a good range of exhibitors for the non-gardener from the lovely soap company Caurnie with their range of chemical free products and Beefayre, who specialise in beautifully scented bee products to garden brocante, where I bought a very lovely old copper watering can for houseplants  – so pretty to look at as well as practical.

Grow London was small but perfectly formed and I will be back for more next year.

Jacqui x

Sourcebook: Grow London by Jacqui Brooks

So I thought I’d do a ‘get the look’ post today and tell you where I got the accessories and furniture currently adorning my garden.

Get the Look

Garden Parasol– This gorgeous sun parasol is a new purchase from The Indian Garden Company – isn’t it stunning.  I dithered for a bit between orange and pink but decided the soft white lent some restraint as there is already a lot going on and when the annuals in the pots flower it will be a riot of orange and pink anyway.

Parasol Stand– Don’t you just love the base, a trumpeting elephant carved from sandstone.  We had to name her Nellie, of course. Also from Indian Garden Company. 

Garden Bench– Crocus is a favourite plant website of mine as the service is great and the plants arrive well packaged and healthy.  This eau-de-nil bench is from Crocus and I love it against the fence painted in Farrow and Ball’s French Grey – a restrained backdrop to the ever changing seasonal colours.

Cushions– I made the ones on the bench myself, but if you’re not feeling crafty, try having a look at this selection of cushions.

Bistro Set– The mosaic table and chairs was a spur of the moment purchase from HomeSense in Northampton a couple of years ago – I saw it in the window, fell in love and the rest, as they say, is history.  Alternatively, take a look at this range of unusual garden furniture and accessories.

Garden Accessories– Have a look here for a selection of garden lanterns, accessories and planters.

Plants– The Pelargoniums and Ferns in pots came from Fibrex, a small specialist nursery that I discovered on a gardening blog.  They specialise in pelargoniums, ferns and ivy’s.   These small nurseries are great for finding unusual varieties of plants.

Plant Pots–  I paint terracotta pots with emulsion paint according to the colour I fancy at the time but I also think they look good when the layers of paint have peeled and they look weathered and interesting.  It’s a cheap way of changing the look of your display.

Jacqui x

Garden Terrace- Get the Look by Jacqui Brooks

Now back to the matter at hand.  One of my personal pet hates is that sort of dirty orange colour they paint fences.  Not sure who they are, but they know who they are!  I suppose it’s a newer version of creosote but just as ghastly and it’s been bothering me since the garden has been landscaped, but it’s taken me a while to decide where to go with it.  A bright colour?   Or something muted and tasteful, haha?  I’ve spent a lot of time squinting at the fence and trying to visualize different colours but black was the colour I kept coming back to and in particular Cuprinol Garden Shades in Black Ash.  My main concern was if I didn’t like it there would be an awful lot of work to rectify it!

The next step was to actually open the tin of paint – I always find starting the hardest bit – the thought of the mess and time involved and I have to make a start on any new project the minute the impetus strikes  me, even if I only have an hour.  Well the moment arrived at about 8pm one evening and I dashed out there unprepared, as usual, but keen and fell in love with the effect instantly.  Of course I, and several plants, were covered in the stuff, mainly me I have to say as I took more care of the plants but I think it looks quite stunning and is a great back drop for my potting bench, which I painted grey.  Not a lot of potting going on there, as you can see, more a case of another display area.

It did take several evenings, I was even painting in the dark one night to get it finished – not a good idea as I when I came back to it in the morning it was quite patchy and I had to do a bit of touching up but I like the unevenness of it, it makes it look a bit more weathered.  Do you remember what it looked like before lurking behind the summerhouse?  If not, have a look here.  Well, this is it now… what do you think?

The small front fence got the treatment next, after quite a bit of squinting, but now I can’t think why I didn’t do it sooner – I love it.

Still squinting and thinking about the fence down the left hand side of the garden.  I bought a tin of Cuprinol Garden Shades ‘Natural Stone’ but I’m not sure enough yet to take the lid off but I need to make up my mind soon as the honeysuckle and clematis I planted are starting to take off and I’m sure it can’t be good for them to be covered in paint.  Thank goodness the fence on the right is going to be hidden by the hornbeam hedge –in time that is.

Fence painting is a messy and tedious business that makes me feel like I’m painting the Forth Road Bridge.  That said, I think it’s well worth it to get rid of that ghastly orange.  What do you think?!

Jacqui x

Ghastly Orange Fences by Jacqui Brooks

Well I have to say I absolutely love it and it is everything I dreamed of but the reality is I never sit in it for more than a few minutes – I’m too busy planting, weeding and sweeping.  I’m turning into my grandmother – have you noticed that Mediterranean grannies love sweeping?  You possibly haven’t but I am very alert to any signs of turning into my mother or grandmothers and this is definitely a big sign!  And raking – how I love raking my gravel.  Somehow raking and sweeping are very therapeutic and contemplative actions.  The Japanese are obviously onto something here with their Zen gardens.

The best bargain is the china cabinet which came from a charity shop for £15 and it spruced up well with a lick of paint.  The rest of the furniture has been acquired from various antique/vintage places and stashed in my garage awaiting the unveiling.   And of course the gorgeous eiderdowns, which remind me of my Scottish granny, so necessary before central heating, I can still picture the ice on the inside of the windows and dashing from bed to fireside to get dressed in my childhood. The rug and the eiderdowns came from a lovely website called Vintage Home, they have some lovely stuff and always something new to look at.  Last, but not least, is the lovely accumulation of stuff mainly from charity shops but also presents and now pieces from our own collection.

As I write this the sun is shining and the clematis is starting to twine its way up the side of the summerhouse, alas my pots by the entrance look rather sad at the moment.  They looked stunning in the spring when the tulips were in full flow but I have replanted with annuals.   It’s my first attempt at growing annuals from seed and they look rather weedy but I’m hoping within a month it will be a flower bower, inside and out.  I feel an inaugural tea party coming on – an afternoon of flowers with tea and cake and chit-chat and sunshine, hopefully.

Jacqui x

Summerhouse Love by Jacqui Brooks