"Design Themes"

Be creative. It’s your paradise we’re creating. We can guide, offer advice and suggestions but it is imperative that we are able to see the image you have in your mind. Take your time and browse through magazines and books for inspiration and ideas to suit you and your family.

Colour in design
Colour can be used to great effect in garden design. A popular theme is the use of all white flowering plants in either a formal or informal landscape. Modern trends now focus on using new exciting plants like this lime green and black foliage garden or using a mass of purple flowering plants against a light blue or orange painted wall.

Formal gardens
Formal gardens are created with mathematical precision, using geometric patterns. Plants are arranged, moulded, clipped and trimmed to rigid guidelines to draw attention to their form. We impose our will on nature, making us the stars with the plants having the supporting role.
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Informal gardens
Informal gardens lean more towards natural landscapes where things are a bit more chaotic, but by the nature of design we work to improve on those arrangements.
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English cottage gardens
True English cottage gardens were originally planted by the peasantry to be both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Herbs and fruit trees were often included amongst rose bushes, perennial flowers and vine-covered arbours. Later the style became trendy with more affluent groups and later still with the rest of the world.
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Japanese gardens
Japanese garden designers are experts in incorporating miniature versions of natural landscapes into a garden. Symbolism plays an important role – raked sand resembling the sea, rocks for durability, water for tranquillity, and so on. The features outside the garden boundary are also ‘borrowed’ to become part of the garden design.
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Indigenous gardens
The use of indigenous plants or a combination of indigenous and exotic plants can attract more than the usual amount of garden wildlife. Gardens planted with carefully chosen local plants also require less water than exotic plants to survive. Purists argue that indigenous gardens should contain plants that are local to the area, but with the huge number of indigenous plant species available it is sometimes difficult to restrict the amount of plants.
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Succulent gardens
Creating a desertscape in a suburban garden can be quite a challenge especially when trying to emulate dramatic natural landscapes. You, however, are the master of your garden and few themes will give you the variety of forms and textures available as the world of succulents will. Succulents are water-wise, weather-tolerant, colourful, low maintenance once established, and very easy to grow from cuttings, making them ideal for modern lifestyles while also complementing modern architecture.
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Tropical gardens
Tropical gardens need plenty of water, rich soil and warm, humid conditions to thrive – an ideal theme for the sub-tropical regions of our country. It is possible, but much more challenging, to create a tropical garden in other areas. If you live in an area that gets severe frost you will have to choose your plants really carefully. The leaves of tropical plants are typically larger than those of plants that have adapted to periods of drought. Lush, leafy plants contrast perfectly with specimen plants such as orchids, with their spectacular sprays of flowers.
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Mediterranean gardens
A Mediterranean-style garden would be a garden of the sun. Elements could include a patio, a grape-covered arbour, a trickling fountain, statues and plenty of sun-loving plants such as olive and citrus trees, lavender, rosemary or bougainvillea. This garden design would obviously do well in the winter rainfall regions of the country. Grey foliage and plants with waxy or hairy leaves are ideal for this type of climate.
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Colour in design
Colour can be used to great effect in garden design. A popular theme is the use of all white flowering plants in either a formal or informal landscape. Modern trends now focus on using new exciting plants like this lime green and black foliage garden or using a mass of purple flowering plants against a light blue or orange painted wall.