I KNOW I may be slightly biased in my opinion here but Garden design must be the most creative forms of design there is. Why do I have the audacity to say this?

Well what other forms of design allow you to work in four dimensions? Not only are you considering the three dimensional space but you are also working with plants which will change with the seasons and the effect of light which will change during the course of the day. This fourth dimension of the effect of time makes it a challenging but exciting art form.

When redesigning your garden don’t just get bogged down in resolving the practical elements of the design.

Allow yourself some fun and creativity. Consider putting together a mood board.

Just as an interior designer might put together a series of images that look at colours and patterns that could be used for furnishings, curtains, carpets and wallpaper you can put together a series of images that excite you.

These may be of plants, colour combinations that appeal to you, items that can be used as focal points like seating, sculpture or quirky items that make you smile and may look good in the garden.

The mood board can also include images of hard landscaping elements like paving, summer houses, pergolas and arches.

To ensure that the garden works well for you try and list the most important features the finished garden must have. For some it will be colour throughout the year, an area for the children to play in or an area for growing vegetables, for others it will be as low maintenance as possible.

In the last gardening column we looked at measuring the garden to produce a basic plan of your existing garden. Using this you can place a piece of tracing paper over the top on which you can sketch ideas for the new layout of your garden.

Don’t skimp on the size of your patio or the width of your pathways. Remember all the time that although you are drawing on a flat piece of paper the garden has height and features like trees, fence panels; sheds arbours and archways will also have height.

One of the decisions you need to make at the outset is do you want to see the entire garden at once or are you happy to create distinctly different areas which may be partly hidden from view?

Consider the use of the garden at night and in the winter months. If you have an open fire it makes sense to bring the log store close to the house with dry access to it if possible.

If you are having a washing line you may want it to be out of sight if that is practical. If you want a low maintenance garden remember that a lawn is one of the elements with the highest maintenance requirements in the growing season.

It is important to give some thought to how long you anticipate remaining in the property. This may impact on the extent of the alterations you wish to carry out. Remember, however, that a well-designed garden can add considerably to the value and saleability of your property.

The layout of the garden will be influenced by your practical requirements. If you plan to eat out consider if you want the patio in the sun or shade. You may not have a choice but it is always possible to create shade with a temporary structure like a simple umbrella or a more permanent feature such as a pergola or an arbour.

Also consider how many people you may wish to be able to seat around a table outside and allow sufficient room to move around the seats without falling into areas of planting. Some people like the layout of pathways and routes through the garden to be curved and some prefer straight lines and more angular shapes for their patios and planting areas. Even a very angular design can be softened with the right planting and a design that appears very rigid on paper can appear to be soft and inviting with the use of plants to spill over the edges and provide a range of textures.

It is possible to add a sense of space to a small garden by making the main focal point follow a view diagonally across the garden. In a square garden, the diagonal from corner to corner will be the longest distance.

Try and keep a sense of balance and unity in your design. There are no right or wrongs. There are no garden design police to tell you off for doing it your way but it is important to consider the scale of the space you have to work with and the impact all the elements have on this sense of space in length width and height. A sense of unity in the design can be created with repeating shapes and by limiting the pallet, so try not to use too many hard landscaping materials.

Have fun drawing out a variety of alternative designs for the general layout and next month we will look at some of the important aspects of selecting plants for your garden.