I have seen my fair share of green belts today. Those are, for those that didn’t study GCSE Geography, the areas around cities that are not to be built in under any circumstance. They are to preserve the gap between city and green, between man and nature. The green works in this situation; nicely juxtaposed against both the city and the sky they are often geographically dynamic; rolling hills and swooping valleys. Greenery alone in a garden though? That’s crazy talk.

When you are dealing with a flat space which, despite our best efforts at making tiers, almost all residential gardens are then it is imperative that, without that geographical dynamism, that we break up the monotony of green in other, interesting ways. So we build things, we shift around plants but, crucially, we add other colours into the equation. Without that we would be left looking at something akin to a solid green wilderness.

I should preface this piece by saying; I used to have two beautiful, enormous trees in the garden. beautiful conifers that, on any given day, would be a welcome sight to me when I get home from work. Tall, regal and towering over the garden commanding the space, demanding respect. I say “used to have” because, unfortunately, they became infested with vines which were slowly killing them. We had to have them taken out, and the garden hasn’t been the same since.

The garden now is, admittedly, much brighter and looks a bit more spacious. The problem now, however, is that the garden is extremely one dimensional. I have talked at length about the need for layers in landscaping, but it works with plants as well. Ground flowers, mid sized bushes all the way up to towering trees. Without those beautiful trees scraping the skyline the garden has lost a little bit of its charm.

Last time we spoke it was for a very different reason; we were talking about the majesty of nature, the glory of the untamed and how the devil we were going to lure them into your garden to add a bit of natural spice and colour, not to mention the birdsong, to your garden. Today, however, let us talk about how to keep those more unwanted guests out of your garden. They can range from squirrels taking the nuts from your birds, or to other people’s cats coming into your garden and defecating everywhere, leaving their scent and scaring off other creatures.
Thankfully you can be several products to deter unwanted visitors; you can buy pre made scents to mark your garden to keep out cats, while squirrels are a little trickier to deter (and that;s if you even want to!) You can try to use smaller nut holders, with smaller holes, to deter their pesky mits, but they’re crafty little devils and usually find a way around even the best laid plans.

Life can be pretty damn stressful; bills to pay, mouths to feed, jobs to go to, wives and girlfriends to pay attention to – not to mention everything else! People talk a lot about ways to destress, ways to unwind and ways to try your best to relax. There are all kinds of herbal remedies, ways to aid your sleeping patterns and even things like yoga and breathing exercises to try and bring the world to rights. But can we look a little bit closer to home to try and help ourselves?

People talk a lot about how nature can be soothing; how long walks in the park can destress us, how going on touring holidays can reset our cores and really bring us peace. But why spend all that money, travel all that distance, when the most tranquil and beautiful piece of nature is outside your very home? So go outside, pull up a chair and really sink in to the closest and most personal bit of nature that there is; your garden.

A mature garden is essentially an outdoor space that includes plenty of mature trees, shrubs and plants, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be maintained. You can have neatly trimmed hedges and tall, tidy plants to the side of a neat pathway, while colourful flowers will give your garden a burst of colour in the summer months.

If you own a country cottage or a traditional rural property, then this could be an ideal garden style, and you can get a lot of privacy from having a garden bordered by mature trees and bushes. There’s a forest-like feel when you let mature plants take the spotlight in your garden, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a well maintained lawn, a contemporary pond area or a summer house.

Modern garden features can compliment established plants and trees, so why not let yours take the spotlight, and create a traditional British cottage garden.