Me, I’m a colour junkie, I can’t help it. I try to calm things down with beiges, taupes and creams, but when you love colour it is hard not to be sucked in by bright beautiful bold blocks that aim to dazzle. So when I found these at De Castelli I wanted to include them in my next modern garden design immediately.

The Delta planter - just need to decide which colour to have!

Yet again the designers at De Castelli have seamlessly taken the traditional and added a contemporary twist. The classic every day terracotta vase is transformed into steel and metal creations so enormous that they dominate all but the biggest space and add distinctive personality to any design. They look great simply as architectural decoration, thereby negating the need for irrigation systems and planting. The only tough part of this purchase is deciding which colour to buy!

Moore Designs Garden Arches

These contemporary garden arches are handmade by award winning designer and blacksmith Alex Moore: http://www.mooredesigns.co.uk/garden-arches/.  Ideal for positioning over a garden pathway, perhaps to form a tunnel.  Constructed from steel we think they would look at home in a traditional garden as well as contemporary, with plants growing up them or left naked!

Here’s what they have to say at Moore Designs:

“Graceful and sturdy, our simple garden arch designs are handmade by us in extra thick steel. Their unfussy styles complement any style of garden and are strong enough to support even the largest climbing plant. Both designs are beautiful as well as functional, allowing you to enjoy their sweeping shapes even during the winter months.

Choose from two different finishes for your arch, a protective galvanised, or rustic oxidised steel. Both finishes are wonderfully plant-friendly. Their rough surfaces allow plants to grip easily and their colours blend beautifully with nature’s extensive palette. There’s no time consuming maintenance with our arches either, after all gardening is hard enough as it is. Both arches can be made with plates at the base if they are to be used as flower or florist arches indoors.”

Sometimes I think we get too hung up on spending a lot of money on playthings for our children, and this remains true in the garden environment. However, simple pastimes can often be the most engaging. I can remember hours spent in the garden playing in a makeshift den that was nothing more than a sheet or blanket slung over a washing line.  It is great to encourage children to explore the depths of their imagination using the the simplest of structures that can be created in an instant, and the possibilities of a den – a place to hide, somewhere to play with friends, a special place where you can have your tea – make it exciting for most childrem.

We all have recollections of children running through the washing on the line, in a playing hide and seek or some other made a game. A couple of years ago we saw this idea taken a stage further in a highly creative garden design exhibited at Chaumont sur Loire, of where they use the idea of colour and washing hanging in a garden to create think blocks of colour that workedwith planting in the bed below.

This idea can always be taken one step further and combine this aesthetic with the idea that children today and can make for a very cheap, colourful and exciting children’s play area, for a day, a week or so long as it needs to last. The only limit is your imagination

Earth Designs offers bespoke London garden design and build as well as catering for garden design in Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire, visit us by clicking here.

We also offer garden designs consultations and postal garden designs, for more information click here.

Sleeper Stones offer a less slippery solution for pathways

Pathway surfacing above all needs to be safe. Whilst railway sleepers make a great option for paving, they do have a tendency en masse to be a little slippery, so those clever people at Living Stone have come up with this great alternative.

The paving could be used to pave a seating area or alternatively set at intervals into a decorative aggregate, this option makes an attractive informal pathway.  The informal appearance of sleepers makes them a versatile material in the garden, at Earth Designs we have used them to construct raised beds, tables and benches.

The sleepers are available in three lengths and can be bought online and delivered for a very reasonable rate.

Living Stone describes their products as such:

“The Living Stone paving range offers endless opportunity for patio design and character to be reflected in your garden landscaped area.  Living Stones’ Sleeper paving gives the appearance of genuine timber sleepers.  It can be used for paved areas, edging or upright to create raised beds or a wall with a difference.”

Victorian Tiled Pathway

At Earth Designs we believe the appearance of the front of your property is just as crucial as the back, first impressions count.  If your home is of the Victorian era then how about sprucing it up your front garden with a beautifully geometric, tiled pathway.

The Classic Victorian Tiling Company specialise in clay tiles for external as well as internal installation.  If you already have a Victorian tiled hallway then why not continue it outside to increase the impact?  Available in a range of colours, sizes and design layouts, they can fit a design to any shape floor or walkway.  If you have an existing tiled pathway they also provide a restoration service to return it to it’s former glory.

Installation of the paths is onto a substantial concrete foundation meaning your pathway will have great longevity, mainting its appearance for a good time to come.

Renovated Victorian Tiled Pathway

The Victorian Tiling Company describe their products as such:

“The geometric shaped tiles alone can be used to great effect in creating dramatic flooring patterns. Ones own imagination is the only restriction.

The Victorian era was the most prolific age for the creation of new house construction techniques and the golden age for the decorative tile. Thankfully people are once again realizing the beauty, durability and style of these historic floors whether they be original or reproduction.”

For bespoke garden design in London, Hertfordshire, Kent and Essex please visit us by clicking here, if you are further afield then our postal garden design service is available worldwide, for details click here.

The Shell Grotto labyrinth

The garden grotto dates back to the 16th century.  No fewer than 4.6 million shells makeup the wonderous labyrinth that is Margate’s Shell Grotto.  Discovered in 1835 the origins of this grotto are still up for debate.  Mosaic covers the walls constructed from the shells of whelks, cockels, mussels and oysters.  Open to the public the grotto has been open to visitors since 1837 only two years after its discovery.

Here’s some more information from the people at Shell Grotto:

“In 1835 Mr James Newlove lowered his young son Joshua into a hole in the ground that had appeared during the digging of a duck pond. Joshua emerged describing tunnels covered with shells. He had discovered the Shell Grotto; 70ft of winding underground passages leading to an oblong chamber, its walls decorated with strange symbols mosaiced in millions of shells. Is it an ancient pagan temple? A meeting place for some secret cult? Nobody can explain who built this amazing place, or why, or when, but since its discovery visitors from all over the world have been intrigued by the beautiful mosaic and the unsolved mystery.”

While browsing on the internet, I stumbled across this product , which for me ticks a lot of boxes.  Not only does it allow children to have a den in the garden (fair weather permitting), it also allows for creative customising.

There is a great range of Cardboard playspace available at Cardboard Toys http://www.cardboardtoys.com/acatalog/cardboard-playhouse-toys.html everything ranging from your own bijou Cardboard Cottage to a Cardboard Castle.

Not only are these options for an outdoor playspace, budget friendly, they also enviromentally sound. The strucutres are supplied as a blank canvas so children are able to decorate them themselves and turn them into just the sort of palatial abode they choose. They can be supplied in brown, white, pink or silver, so depedning on your plans for the struture you can choose your base colour.

I also think these would be a great buy for a theme children’s party. Whether it be space or fairy tales, you could easily organise outdoor messy play to decorate one of these with the winning child being able to take the structure home – something unique and different and relatively low cost.

The only decision is which one to choose – starting from £30 for the playhouse which measures 900 x 675 x 1280 mm to the largest item the Princess Palace at £92 measuring 2210 x 2210 x 1850 mm , I think these are even suitable for a present for a family.

as Kid -Eco say:

‘These are ideal for both structured activities or as blank canvases for children to express themselves freely with their own ideas and play.

Each child’s playhouse comes flat packed, is easy to assemble and can be easily stored away in its original packaging between periods of play.

Our playhouses are available in a range of colours and are modular, so allowing replacement of damaged parts and selective play with individual components’

The Rolling Summerhouse by Charlie Whinney

The Rolling Summerhouse is large enough to sit inside and read a book, or even roll around a garden like a giant tumbleweed, allowing the user to chase the sun round. As the wood is so light it will not mark decking or damage lawns. The modern yet timeless style would work well in any contemporary garden design, although obviously it may be a little large for small urban gardens.

What was your inspiration for the design?

Microscopic life forms such as plankton.

Is the Rolling Summer House designed for someone to live in or as an outdoor seating area?

An outdoor seating/playing structure.  I have tiny children run almost upside down inside the cladding before tumbling out onto the grass.

How big is the Rolling Summer House?

Any size up to about 8 meters (26ft 3”) for this design; this one is 3 meters (9ft 10”), but its brother which we made the year before was 4 meters (13ft 2”).

Please describe the construction process?

It is a unique ‘double layered gridshell’’; every component was steam-bent into the correct curve and then bolted together using 160mm x 10mm (6.3” x 0.4”) Coach screws for the main structure and 6mm (0.25”) coach bolts for the cladding.

How much wood was used in the design?

About 2 cubic feet (0.06m3) of timber, it is all Oak and Ash that was locally sources and steam-bent ‘green’ (fresh) into shape.

Is steam bent wood more sustainable than traditional lumber?

Yes it is!  Depending on where you live, traditional lumber is almost always kiln dried and transported a long way, which produces a lot of carbon emissions. Because of the huge advantages of working directly with the local sawmill to get the correct cuts of timber for steam bending, and using it green (fresh), steam bent wood is almost always locally sourced (so little transport) and used green (so no fuel for kilning) and the actual steaming process can often be fuelled by burning wood waste. The steaming process seasons the wood as well as softens it, so it does that same job as kilning.

Would you consider making a cabin from steam bent wood?

Yes, I am actually hoping to be doing that next year up the Lake District in Cumbria.  It will be as much a work of art as a piece of architecture.

The Rolling Summerhouse in the workshop