5 Architectural Additions to Enhance a Newly Planted Garden

“If you’ve spent a significant amount of time, effort and money on landscaping your garden to get it just right, you might be wondering how you can take your enjoyment of it to the next level. In this blog post, we explore the many different options available to your readers – including the addition of a green roof, the construction of a garden outbuilding, and the installation of corner glass to extend your angle of enjoyment. Join us on a blooming marvellous tour of the garden, stopping occasionally to smell the roses and make a few helpful suggestions.”

Picture this: you recently spent significant amounts of time, money and effort planning and creating your perfect garden.

Whether that’s a prairie planting scheme dominated by softly waving grasses and a winding path that snakes between the borders, or something a little more colourful in the form of cosmos, zinnias and marigolds, it is important that you can make the most of your chosen design.

(After all, the average price per square metre of landscaping can cost as much as £500 – so you will want to get value for money!)

With the garden in place and a cup of tea (or something stronger) in your hand, you might wonder whether there are additional elements that could bring your design to life, or – alternatively – architectural ideas such as an invisible glass corner or even glass floor that might give you a new and unique perspective.

In this blog post, we want to explore five architectural ideas to enhance your newly planted space. Equipped with these ideas, you can ensure that the garden meets your high expectations.

Let’s start with our most ambitious idea…

Idea 1: A Glass Floor

Your first reaction to our first suggestion might be confusion. After all, how does a glass floor fit into the aesthetics of your outdoor space? Let us put your mind at ease: we are not suggesting that you pull up your lawn and replace it with glazing.

Instead, for homeowners with a courtyard filled with potted plants, an overhead transparent walkway provides a unique perspective – a bird’s eye view of your plants which might not be enjoyed in a typical garden.

Taking this concept another step forward, many architects, homeowners and project managers are embracing the outdoors by growing a specimen tree within the home, surrounded by glass.

Imagine standing on a glass floor and looking down to see the canopy of your favourite tree spreading out below – it’s a unique and stunning way to incorporate nature into your home design.

Idea 2: A Green Walls and Roofs

Speaking of incorporating nature into your home design, green roofs and walls allow your planting scheme to flow up the side of a building and onto the roof – two spaces that might otherwise be considered a barren ecological desert.

Green roofs are growing increasingly popular with people who might not have a huge garden, so must make the best use of their small space.

To create your green walls, the chosen plants will need to be able to survive and thrive in a very shallow substrate, so succulents are probably your best option (plants like Sempervivum tectorum and Delasperma cooperi come from far hotter climes than our own so are able to store water far more efficiently than native plants).

Green roofs often have an equally shallow substrate – known as an extensive green roof – but depending on the strength of the roof it is being installed on, it could be much deeper, increasing the planting options available to you.

Idea 3: Garden Lighting

Let’s assume you don’t ever want to put on another pair of gardening gloves again. Your planting is finished, and you simply want to make the most of what has been installed. With this horticultural conclusion in mind, we turn our attention towards illumination – specifically, outdoor lighting.

Your garden probably looks great in the daytime, but what about at night? If not accompanied by suitable lighting, its overall effect can easily wane when the sunshine disappears. That doesn’t have to be the case.

A tree that has uplights installed at its base can provide a focal point in the darkness and highlight some of the captivating details displayed in the wood.

On the other hand, if you have plants whose flowers open at night to attract moths (Matthiola longipetala, for example), lighting can help you to get the full effect of these specimens.

As well as highlighting specific plants, your lighting system could also define the path that takes visitors from one seating area to another, or from the house to a particular patio. This deployment of lighting can tie a garden together whilst also guaranteeing the safety of its occupants.

Idea 4: Corner Glass

It is a wonderful feeling to stand at your window and gaze out at the garden beyond. Whether you are watching the rain fall or the pollinators feed on flowers, standing indoors and looking outside is quite lovely.

In a traditional home, your view of greenery will be limited to the windows built into the straight sections of the wall. Typically, that means the corners become wasted space – a shame if you would like to get the full effect of a wrap-around garden.

Thankfully, advancements in structural glazing over the last 30 years mean that you can install invisible corner glass, allowing you to create comfortable seating areas that have an excellent view of the outside world.

Where once you might have stared directly at a brick wall, today the possibilities are almost endless for what view you have and where you can have it.

You might think that corner glass requires a bulky frame to support the wall above, but that’s not the case – in fact, by consulting experienced specialists, your glass corner can be frameless, created by fusing together two pieces of crystal-clear glass.

Idea 5: A Studio Outbuilding

Your home from home, a studio at the end of the garden is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Whether you want to add colour to a canvas, make a racket with your band, or write your next novel, we think an outbuilding is the perfect addition to any outside space.

The best bit? It can be entirely customised to meet your aesthetic: rustic woodland cabin or chic and shiny glazed box.

Having that separate space that is a catalyst for creativity is important for many people, but if you aren’t feeling particularly inspired, you could always turn it into a home gym, complete with an exercise bike, weights rack and ice bath. Feel the burn and enjoy the cool within your garden studio.

Audrey Hepburn, queen of the screen, once reportedly said ‘to plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.’ Equipped with our list of suggestions, you can make your dream a reality, featuring an artist’s cabin and gazed at through a stylish glass corner. It can be all too easy to overlook the outside when working on a building or renovation project. Our advice? Don’t. Instead, get in touch with qualified specialists today.

 

This article was written by William Messenger on behalf of Cantifix, one of the leading architectural glazing specialists in the UK. As well as creating innovative glass products, they also collaborate on research into the impact of natural light on our health and well-being.