14 garden landscaping ideas to ensure you plan the perfect garden

Designing - or redesigning - your outdoor space can be a fun and creative process, but can also be overwhelming. Make things that bit easier by firstly exploring your garden landscaping possibilities.

When planning what garden you wish to explore, you'll find that garden landscaping is at the heart of most - of not all - of them. By understanding the best ways to approach this, the less fuss you'll have in creating your dream space.

In order to understand how to landscape a garden, we have to understand what it actually means. 'Landscape design is just the outdoors version of interior design -albeit with rather different materials,' says Tabi Jackson Gee, founder, TJG Gardens.  'The actual landscaping bit itself refers to any changes you're making to your outdoor space – from creating new plant beds to building walls or terraces.'

'Both the hard landscaping and the soft landscaping (plants) need to be designed carefully to be functional and beautiful, and with budget, site and future uses all taken into consideration,' continues Tabi. 'Designers then work with landscaping contractors to make these ideas a reality. There's so much that goes into the process which people don't see - choosing the right materials, the right finishes, the right lighting and so all is all a skill that adds up to a beautiful garden.'

'Most good designers can do both - you need an incredible amount of knowledge not just of plants but of materials, building practices, costs, supply chains - and it's this knowledge which allows a designer to help a client get the most from their garden.'