hi welcome back to garden ninja today's video is all about borrowed views now
I've got a section in the garden which has been masked off by this huge huge
hedge for many years now I know there's a view behind it but I thought it would
be a good idea to demonstrate how you can take a borrowed view of another
landscape or a Vista and bring it into garden now it's going to be a lot of
work and hopefully the transformation is going to be incredible! First things
first I need to remove sections of this hedge to then start to take in that
borrowed view which is going to involve a chainsaw and some very very careful
work from me full of safety gear you get part of this hedge down
now I've checked that all the birds are finished nesting and I've got plenty
more hedging for them to go and habitat if they need be so don't worry
about the environmental impacts as loads with the plants going in to help
wildlife but come on let's get cracking!
I've just finished taking down the hedge it's taken about a day it's been a right
nightmare but all the materials are going to be recycled I'm gonna use the
wood for firewood and I've left all the vegetation on the top of the exploding
atom garden so are any wildlife to escape and go and habitat or in other
parts of hedges but now it's time to fit the big design feature which is a moon
gate!
So I'm gonna be using a moon gate that you'll often see in traditional Chinese
garden design ow a Moon Gate is a circular structure that is gonna pull
your view through that moon gates and out into the borrowed view so it's taking
the big Vista behind me pulling it in to the smaller garden giving that
illusion of depth in space but without getting completely lost in the Vista so
I hope that makes sense and as you see me put the moon gate and
start to plant up you'll see how it all comes together so need to get a wiggle
on because I've got plenty to do!
Now there was a shed here before and a a load of overgrown shrubs
I've cleared it all out I've just could with this fence here but it's in a bit of a
worse for wear state so I need to replace it it's had a look around and
usually I prefer to fix things and maintain them but in this instance knots
about 20 years old I think we're better off replacing it so
I've got two new fence panels I'm gonna pop some posts to fix the fence panels
to it and that will give me a really clean foil or backdrop for the rest the
planting now I don't want the fence to stand out I want it to blend in so
that's the whole purpose of this garden is that your eyes drawn through the moon
gate and around surrounding plants so the fence panels on our way and they look
much better than the old ones like I said before I've chosen these
purely for function I could have gone for more aesthetic decorative fence
panels but what I don't want to do is to take your attention away from the moon
gate and the planting on to the fence problem so this is purely functional
only designing a garden you always happen to balance function versus
aesthetic if you're gonna choose something that's aesthetically beautiful
it's probably going to be a focal point that draws your eye you can't have your
eye drawn to everything so you have to make the balance between function and
beauty in this case planting in the moon gate of a beauty and unfortunately this
fence panel is just functional so I've assembled the moon gate it's ready here
and I've concrete it in the post that it's gonna get secured to but I can't
lift this one on my own I'm gonna have to ask for some help someone else help
me hit stop and then screw it into those posts!
I've got some really exciting specimens behind me
and all of these are going to be planted off around the moon date so it's a
relatively formal structure we've got the rectangular bed we've got the hedge
that have renovated fence panel and then the circular form of the moon gate and
what what to do sees a lot of soft the beige is planting amongst some evergreen
shrubs to give it a really light touch I'm going to be using evergreen shrubs
such as Virbunum and Spirea and I call these car park shrubs and people often
overlook them because they think oh it's just a viburnum I'm going to show you
how you can use them to maximum effect and you probably won't even recognize
them when I'm done the purpose of this is to make an area that feels really
calm textured and relaxing and neither's evergreen shrubs to give it the weight
to support that heavy structure of the moon gate and I don't mean support the
weight physically I mean to balance it so without the evergreen structure I'm
just going for all these soft herbaceous plants such as the Carex, Geraniums
the Heleniums and Rudbeckia it'll feel a little bit too light and need something
meaty to flank that moon gates are kind of pull it into the garden so it's
got a real purpose but all will become clear as I start to plant up next so now
it's the really fun part which is to take all of the plants from the design
and start to lay them out! If you've watched my other videos you know that I
always lay them out first take a step back have a look see how
they work because whilst you may plan it out paper and it looks brilliant
the real key see how it looks in real life so I always lay them out stand back
maybe have a cup of coffee make some adjustments before I commit them to the
ground this is a fun bit so come on let's plant them out!
So here we have it finished moon gates and took down that really overgrown
hedge i have transformed this area into a real focal point i've used a pallet of
really soft herbaceous perennials that will give interest throughout the year
and it punctuated it with some evergreen shots to give structure throughout the
winter months the base the moon gate we've got things like the Viburnum
Spirea but over time will mould the way around for joins and make it look at the
moon gate is sitting within the plants
so have a look down here now this is Sedum matting and you usually find this
on green leaves but I'm using it here because the gate next to dispense opens
out and swings across a part of this broader if I plant up things like Ferns
and geraniums and herbaceous stuff they're just going to get battered so
it's a really good idea to work out what's gonna happen around the space so
I know this is going to be a heavy traffic area with the gate opening and
closing for like the week from Sedums perfect it's not going to grow very tall
but it will mat out cover this area and because it's a succulent and you've also
got these tiny flowers it's great for wildlife food spring summer and winter
it's a really good choice for an area such as this so what I've done is chosen
a mix of herbaceous perennials with different flowering windows and what I
mean by that is that they will flower at different times thought yeah and it's a
really good trick if you're new to gardening because it extends the season
of interest it means that you got something to look at every month
throughout the summer hopefully through to the winter as well so you've got
things like the Verbena bonariensis with the purple flowers that will give like a
haze throughout summer really tall you've got Luzula a forest
grass that will give you that spring early interest we've got the Sedum it
gives you year-round interest with the other green matting you've got things
like Spirea we've got Shield Ferns in the shadier areas we've also got Heleniums
that I've grown without plastic earlier this year for the exploding
atom garden Cape Fuchsia we've got an Kniphofia there which will give a
yellow spike in the middle of summer we've got a whole mix of things and if
you want to know more about them check on my blog because I'll have all the
detail of all these plants and the aspects that they're good for. Now it may
seem vicious what I've done with this hedge I've taken it back really hard and
if you want to know how to do that I've got a guide the ultimate guide on how to
trim hedges I'll show you how to do that carefully but already you can start to
see some of the new growth bursting through and they only cut that back
about two weeks ago what will happen over time is Hawthorn and the privet
hedge that are renovated will start to push out again and it will act as well
as a screen and also like a low wall against the moon gate which will then
draw your eye even ever through the moon gate chain so what
I'm doing with the moon gate is drawing your view. Without it you'd still
have a beautiful backdrop it could feel overwhelming so the moon gate is helping to
focus that view give you a purpose that's a really key garden design
feature.
Now you could use any structure to call your doing this is a really nice example
because it frames that view and I've also mirrored that shape of the moon
gate and some of the fronting with the daisy-like flowers from the circular
shape of thing it's all about slowing down the interest so you've got the view
and the focus here and then all the panting was slowly around if you just
have the view without any of this it's a bit of a one-shot one-hit wonder bang
there it is now another top tip I'm going to give you now is about giving
yourself sneak peeks in your garden and if your garden transitions from one area
to the next why not give a sneak peek so here behind me I've removed part of
the hedge that separated the other lawn from this part of the garden so when you
come in from the house you get a sneak peek of the garden here in the moon gate
and when you've at the moon gate you get a sneak peek of the other areas of the
garden and it's a really clever way inviting someone to start a journey
throughout the garden if and I've left the hedges here whilst this would have
looked beautiful I wouldn't get the benefit of the sneak peek from the
garden over there or from here into the rest of the garden so think about your
journeys and the view points throughout your garden and how you can give sneak
peeks to other areas.
Now I'm not saying that everyone's gonna have an amazing Vista that you can
borrow such as this one here what I am showing you is that even the small
garden whether you've got a borrowed view or just a focal point you can really make
sure your garden packs a punch even in the small space by using extended
seasons of interest with you planting the focal point and making sure that you
repeat the style or the pattern or the shape you can make a small garden feel
really immersive for the detail vibrant and exciting to be in if you buy this
video why not subscribe to my youtube channel but there were loads more garden
design hints tips and hacks whether you've got a tiny postage stamp garden
or a couple of acres I've got top tips how to make the most out of your garden Happy gardening!