Contemporary Rural garden design

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

We are blessed to have a good sized garden surrounded by open fields.

We want to maximise views, but add some trees or structure to slow the wind, whilst going for a modern yet, naturalistic look. We don't want a country cottage style. Any ideas? All I can find are images for traditional twee gardens or huge coniferous windbreaks.

Ideas welcome - thanks
At the moment the garden is made not laid to lawn, with 4ft hawthorn hedges to side and a holly hedge at the bottom which shields my allotment.

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Fisher Tomlin & Bowyer

9 years ago

Hi.

A good start would be to get some woodland edge planting in to slow the wind down. You're right about slowing as you don't want to cut it right down and a solid hedge would cause disruption from wind on the garden side of the hedge. Mixed native tree planting - trees like Acer capestre (field maple), Betula spp (birch) and Prunus padus (Bird cherry) would work well along with some structure from hawthorn and beech.

You should definitely watch coverage (or even go) to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year as there will be lots of modern rural gardens there (I select the gardens so I've seen the designs!) and watch out for online coverage, especially from shootgardening.co.uk (a good resource) and the RHS's own website for some top tips. My top tips would be:
1. Avoid the temptation to plant lots of grasses - it was fashionable but is now a bit old hat. Perennial meadows such as those you see at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are great and you can plant from seed although with your existing lawn you might consider plug plants which you can buy online from places like British Wildflowers.
2. Remember the vertical as much as the horizontal so plants some of those trees within the garden and not just on the boundary and use them to filter the views as much as the wind.
3. Use grass paths but maybe structure with some formality and angles to get the contemporary feel you might be looking for. Blocks of hedges within those borders cut formally will give some winter structure as well as a sculptural quality.

Jo Thompson designs some great rural gardens, she is based in Kent but not sure where you are.

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Comments (6)

Emma Staples
9 years ago
Hi Emzalive, I would post this in design dilemma to get some initial suggestions. Lucky you having such fab views to begin with! :)
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Mark Lane Designs
8 years ago
I live with a similar view just outside Canterbury, Kent. We are surrounded by farmland and while wanting to blend the garden in to the landscape I designed the borders with a naturalistic stance - this does mean including various types of grasses such as molinia, deschampsia, stipa and calamagrostis, which in themselves stand proud, but also have the canny nack of blending plants and colours to form a cohesive look. It also helps bring the landscape in to the garden, especially in the autumn and the winter, when their tan colours match similar colours on the horizon. I do not believe that grasses have had their time. If used properly, they just become part of the overall design. Do think vertically as well as horizontally, and to give a 'modern' style/approach do not use sweeping shapes for borders (these are used a lot for cottage style gardens with space): keep them straight with angles - the naturalistic planting will blur the otherwise sharp edges. Please feel free to look at my website marklanedesigns.com and look at the recent 'Bramling' garden in the portfolio. This was similar to my own garden, but had to include a swimming pool, which is always challenging. Excellent plants to use include: helenium, echinacea, echium russicum, aster (symphyothricum) umbellatus, vernonia, lythrum, baptisia, as well as cotinus, euphorbia. Think primarily herbaceous but keep the planting simple. Not necessary in big blocks which mirror the early gardens in the naturalistic/prairie styles but in terms of repetition throughout the borders. Use a single type of plant as a dot plant throughout - very similar to how plants self-seed in the wild. I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please feel free to get in touch.
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Sam Butler Garden Design
8 years ago
What a fabulous spot. Lucky you.

When you have such an open aspect to start with a good way to decide where the views are that you want to keep is to make a frame (cut one out of the back of a large cereal box) and hold it up to look through as you move it around your boundary. This gives you good starting point for working out which views you want to keep and frame and where you can afford to put the screening/windbreak trees. Then take a load of the biggest poles that you can manage and stick them in where you think that you may want to plant trees. Live with them for a bit to check that you have the positioning right before planting.

Have a look at the website of garden designers Acres Wild. I'm a huge admirer of their work and they will have several projects on there that could give you inspiration.

I also second Andrew Fisher Tomlin's point about bringing some of the trees away from the boundary and in to the garden. From the photos it looks as though you have enough space to create pockets within the garden which will also slow the wind.

Have fun! Sam
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Lace Landscapes
7 years ago
My travels to Patagonia where winds are strong and the need to deal with it especially around the house creates a stunning landscape of great planes dotted by the congregations of verticals of Lombardi poplars around houses. The Lombardi poplars (Populus nigra 'Italica') not only work as stunning accents but also create framed views as their width is much less then their height. Lombardi poplars prefer moist, nutrient-rich alkaline soils.

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Melissa Morton Garden Design
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I agree with most of the points above... decide what you want to see, what you don't, bring planting in the garden to relate to the planting beyond/in the distance (you want your garden to unify with your field of view). I've tried a contemporary rural planting design here (please note the hard landscaping was already done by the homeowners builders, roll eyes!)

The image below was taken when the planting was still immature. But here a single hawthorn (Crataegus prunifolia) was positioned carefully (when viewed from key angles) to relate to the trees in the fields behind.
SUMMER 1st SEASON. Contemporary planting design, Ilkley moor, West Yorkshire · More Info

WINTER Contemporary planting design, Ilkley moor, West Yorkshire · More Info

And for me it was important that the planting colour and structure palette blended with the backdrop and context.

I posted this as a modern planting design as this related to the personal style of the clients. It was a creative challenge to arrive at something that had quite a 'clean' modern look but worked with the natural rural feel.

The site is very exposed and the plants tolerate and are growing well in these conditions.

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Contemporary Rural garden design

Fisher Tomlin & Bowyer

Comments (6)

Emma Staples

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