In this blog, Cotswold designer and RHS Chelsea judge, Liz Nicholson, shares her top garden design considerations and expert insights when it comes to designing a new outdoor space.

We have all been in the position of the shopping list when buying a new home. What is more important? Is it being able to sweep into your own drive? The number of bedrooms or reception rooms, the commute to work….

I have moved relatively recently and experienced that wonderful period of time immediately after moving where I’d run through the house with excitement every time I came home from work…a bit like Kate Winslet in The Holiday when she arrives in Los Angeles! I took joy in seeing different characteristics appear in each room as the days passed. This continued for perhaps four weeks or so! I started to learn which floorboards creak or which door handles stick and on one occasion I walked flat into a panel door!

Then, as these first few sublime weeks pass and the joy and excitement settles into a new normal, I certainly found my attention turn with more curiosity to the garden.

The absolute joy in any garden is the wonderful seasonality we enjoy in our climate. The garden changes daily and a new homeowner can be met with excitement on every evening walk.

Unfurling herbaceous, overgrown hedges and, in my case, think vigorous grass, brambles, nettles and even ground elder…not necessarily all welcome but somehow fascinating in those early months.

An inherited garden is an exciting opportunity to all of us lucky enough to be in this position – the future is unmapped. You can afford to take risks.

You can’t afford to sit back and let nature take its course and see what it has in store for the design of your garden.

Interior design is a well respected profession where an experienced designer will have talent, curating pieces to bring a room to life. To some extent it is a one off project and when complete, the room will have a character which can be maintained.

When designing a garden, the completed build is often the beginning of the garden’s development – beauty and interesting character will develop as the garden matures.

Nevertheless, it is critical in both cases to consider design very carefully and here are some of my top garden design considerations and tips for a beautiful outdoor space:

• Take time on the weekend to track the sun from breakfast through to lunch and into the evening to help you decide where the most beautiful places to sit will be.

• Look at your boundary and decide if you need further reinforcement to contain pets or screen views.

• If space allows, hedges and trees are always the soft option for boundary treatments and have the added benefit of being wonderful habitats for small creatures.

• Consider garden journeys – where are you going to walk around the garden? Pathways, vistas and points of interest will encourage you and any visitors to really enjoy your entire garden space.

• Veggies, herbs and fruit production are very important to me and any production needs to be carefully cited on good ground, with adequate sun and in reasonable shelter. You don’t need a kitchen garden to grow your own food and I take huge inspiration from some of the famous balcony gardeners who very successfully grow their food in pots.

• Hard surfaces, terraces, paths and verandas – a nice focal point for entertaining but beware of overdoing it…the best gardens are nature led, not dominated by hard surfaces. Think about your furniture and dedicate space that fits this well and is not oversized.

• Maintenance is of course a major consideration. Gardens can be very simple and equally effective if you want to make it low input. Imagine a space left to long grass with meandering paths, billowing roses, hammocks in ancient boughs and limited gravel areas for furniture…Very restful, simple and low in environmental impact.

• I feel with the immediate climate and nature crises anything goes in Garden Design…less is more… Nevertheless thoughtful garden design will help you deliver artful simplicity over messy neglect!

• Gardens are spaces for families to make memories. Just consider for a moment these beautiful words written by Laurie Lee, in Cider with Rosie:

“There was nothing to do. Nothing moved or happened, nothing happened at all except summer. Small heated winds blew over our faces, dandelion seeds floated by, burnt sap and roast nettles tingled our nostrils together with the dull rust smell of dry ground. The grass was June high and had come up with a rush, a massed entanglement of species, crested with flowers and spears of wild wheat, and coiled with clambering vetches, the whole of it humming with blundering bees and flickering with scarlet butterflies. Chewing grass on our backs, the grass scaffolding the sky, the summer was all we heard; cuckoos crossed distances on chains of cries, flies buzzed and choked in the ears, and the saw-toothed chatter of mowing-machines drifted on waves of air from the fields.”

Gardens cover nearly 960,000 hectares across the UK, giving us an incredible opportunity to create spaces that work beautifully for both people and nature. With over 308,000 cultivated plants to choose from, spanning ornamental, edible and medicinal varieties, the possibilities are endless.