If you’ve ever designed a garden from scratch, you will know how difficult and daunting the process can be. Standing at your back (or front) door and looking out at the overgrown glass and tangle of weeds, or completely paved-over rectangle of grey, you will probably find yourself wondering where on earth to start.
While there is no one right way to go about it, there are some common design mistakes that are best avoided in nearly all situations. These might be choices that will negatively impact the environment, that won’t age well, or that simply aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as they might initially seem. We asked some of our favourite garden designers to share their ultimate garden design no-nos and this is what they said.
Overly designed, symmetrical gardens
‘Gardens at historical houses should feel like they’ve always been there. And with newbuilds – barn conversions, and so on – it’s about helping gardens settle into the landscape. The best gardens should make you feel a deep sense of belonging: busy and overworked designs only clutter up the mind and prevent us from truly connecting with a place.’ – Tabi Jackson Gee, garden designer and founder of Them Outdoors
‘Perfect symmetry can look impressive on paper, but often feels stiff in a small garden. Two identical beds flanking a central path may satisfy a sense of order, yet they rarely reflect how people actually move or sit in a space. A slight asymmetry – an off-axis path, a larger planting area on one side, a tree placed where it feels right, rather than where geometry dictates, usually results in a garden that feels calmer and more natural.’ – Tabitha Rigden
Too much hard landscaping
‘You should always find ways to break up views and add greenery wherever you can. You don’t want your eye drawn to all the materials you’ve had to import into a garden, instead you want to focus on plants. I can’t believe I have to say that but I suppose it’s also an aversion to the idea of the “outdoor room”. I’m currently working on a project where we are having to excavate half a metre of poured concrete – it’s a beast to get out but at the end of it the clients will actually be able to see plants from their basement kitchen!’ – Tabi Jackson Gee
‘One of the most common excesses in garden design is the vast terrace: great swathes of paving stretching between seating areas. In reality, the space between them only needs to function as a walkway. Anything more tends to be visually heavy, environmentally costly, and financially extravagant. Reducing hard surfaces has several advantages. It lowers material costs and embodied carbon, improves drainage, and gives planting a chance to do the work. Gardens rarely suffer from too little paving, but they frequently suffer from far too much.’ – Tabitha Rigden
Fake grass
‘The environmental case is well documented – microplastics, heat, destroyed soil biology – but my strongest objection is more personal. Children should grow up with the feeling of real grass under bare feet. That cool, soft feeling of a summer lawn is one of those foundational sensory experiences that connects us to the natural world. Swap it for plastic, and no amount of low-maintenance convenience compensates for what's lost. If a lawn feels like too much work, ask honestly whether you need one at all.’ – Harry Holding
‘Plastic, astroturf, resin gravels are all to be avoided. All components in a garden should age together. The moment you have a wipe clean or artificial surface it will soon stick out like a sore thumb. Embrace the ageing process with joy!’ – Joe and Laura Carey, Carey Garden Design Studio
‘If a potential client approaches us and tells us that one aspect of their brief is AstroTurf, we say we are really sorry but we do not do fake grass! It looks awful and is seriously bad for the health and wellbeing of garden as the earth below cannot breath and will become unhealthy. Totally unsustainable.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Porcelain or ceramic paving
‘Porcelain paving has become something of a default choice in contemporary gardens, largely because it’s marketed as low-maintenance and modern. Personally, I would almost always avoid it. In wet conditions, porcelain can be a slippery death-trap with little grip. It can also look artificial alongside planting. Gardens are living environments, and porcelain’s perfect, uniform finish can look too new and too crisp against the softness of plants. Natural materials mellow and become part of the garden over time. Porcelain, by contrast, often looks exactly as it did the day it was laid, or slightly worse. I almost always prefer natural stone or textured materials that weather beautifully and feel rooted in the landscape.’ – Jo Thompson
‘We really try to avoid any porcelain or ceramic paving and prefer to work with natural materials including stone paving and gravel, and occasionally timber. Once in a while, we are pushed into laying the same flooring as in the interior of the client’s property, but it never feels right. Apart from anything else, porcelain is quite slippery which is not ideal in an outdoor space, particularly in our climate.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Planting as an afterthought
‘The “I’ll leave the plants ’til later” attitude gives us chills. If you are investing in having your garden designed, it is worth committing to the whole package. The planting is what makes it a garden, and not something to be sprinkled on at the end.’ – Joe and Laura Carey
‘Plants often get treated as a decorative afterthought, sprinkled around the edges of terraces like garnish on a plate. But planting should be the structure: it shapes spaces, screens views, and defines movement. When plants are relegated to narrow beds around the perimeter, the garden feels thin and architectural elements dominate. Generous planting - running between and around spaces - creates depth and atmosphere.’ – Tabitha Rigden
Planting in ones
‘It’s such a temptation to fill the trolley with one of everything you like. Even if all the plants thrive in the garden, true visual drama comes from careful editing and repetition. Restraint gives a sense of natural cohesion.’ – Joe and Laura Carey
A lack of seasonal interest
‘A garden simply planted with evergreen plants is boring and lacking in sensitivity and will look almost identical all year round. A garden needs to breathe and live, it is not a stage set and the only way that this can be achieved is by mixing some structural and evergreen planting with perennials, herbaceous plants and grasses which change through the seasons - plus spring bulbs.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Sticking to the colour ‘rules’
‘One of the ideas I most strongly disagree with in garden design is the notion that certain colours simply don’t go together. You often hear rules about never mixing pink and orange, or keeping hot and cool palettes strictly separate. Nature pays absolutely no attention to these rules. Look at a summer meadow or a sunset and extraordinary colour combinations appear everywhere. Some of the most exciting gardens break these rules. I designed a Chelsea Flower Show garden back in 2019 to disprove this myth with oranges and hot tones merging into cooler shades and the result felt vibrant and joyful rather than jarring. Trust your eye!’ – Jo Thompson
Small pots and skinny borders
‘A terrace or courtyard covered in small pots creates visual noise rather than impact. Fewer, larger containers will almost always outperform a collection of modest ones – visually, ecologically and practically. A single oversized planter, generously planted with a small tree or shrub and something trailing beneath, creates drama and scale in a way that 10 small pots never will. Go bold with one or two really well-considered containers. The garden will be better for it.’ – Harry Holding
‘Even in a small outdoor space, don’t make a planted border too skinny, scale up, be generous, do you really need that lawn? (And you definitely don’t need an artificial one.) ’ – Sheila Jack
Raised beds as the default
‘Raised beds have their place, but they’re often the automatic response to any small urban courtyard, and the results are often deeply unsatisfying. Box in a small space with a ring of raised beds and it immediately feels tighter, more enclosed, bordering on claustrophobic. In most small urban gardens, planting directly into the ground, combined with generous containers and climbers up every available wall, creates something far more dynamic. The walls are growing space. Use them!’ – Harry Holding
Trees against boundaries
‘Think about how they will grow and how much more interesting a space might be if you use the height and relative “transparency” of a multi-stem tree within the garden space, even quite close to the house. The garden will be so much more interesting if you don’t see it all at once.’ – Sheila Jack
Bug hotels (and anything that seems like it’s ticking a box)
‘Bugs don’t like hotels, they like gardens. Also, it is possible to have a wildlife-centric, pollinator-friendly and sustainable design without the garden needing to have a “neglected” or “uncared for” aesthetic. Careful curation is key and we strive to avoid bug hotels or anything that appears to be ticking a box and clashing with the atmosphere.’ – Joe and Laura Carey
Over-reliance on irrigation
‘Constant irrigation after the first year can result in shallow, weak root systems, making them less capable of handling drought or environmental stress. "Pampering" plants with frequent water causes roots to stay near the surface, whereas allowing the soil to dry out between waterings encourages them to send roots deeper, strengthening the plant.’ – Sheila Jack
Mass-produced furniture (with cream cushions)
‘If you start looking, there are so many incredible artists and craftspeople and even manufacturers here in the UK who can make you something that you will treasure. I hope we are coming to the end of this period of just buying stuff online with no thought to where it came from. I think if you’re investing in pieces for your garden there is a wonderful creative opportunity to think about its provenance, the hand of the maker, and where the materials came from. It’s why I set up Them Outdoors.’ – Tabi Jackson Gee
‘Cream or white outdoor cushions look wonderful in catalogues. They suggest relaxed luxury and effortless entertaining. In reality, they stay pristine for about 45 minutes, roughly until the photographer leaves. In a real garden they quickly acquire muddy paw prints, grass stains, spilled wine, bird droppings and the occasional child with an ice lolly. You sit down after weeding and leave a smear of soil. Rain splashes mud from the paving and suddenly the cushions are less Mediterranean terrace and more evidence of actual garden life. I always suggest choosing deeper, forgiving colours for outdoor fabrics like charcoal, olive, rust, navy or terracotta. They still look elegant but are far better suited to the slightly messy reality of being outside.’ – Jo Thompson
A view of your furniture (however lovely it is)
‘Don’t just assume you need to put furniture right outside your windows, who really wants to look at furniture when you can be looking at your garden?’ – Sheila Jack
‘A perfectly framed view from the kitchen table straight onto the outdoor dining furniture rather defeats the point of having a garden. When the indoor and outdoor dining tables stare directly at one another across a bare terrace, neither space feels distinct. A garden should offer a degree of discovery and enclosure. The most successful dining spaces sit within planting, not on a stage in front of it. A loose veil of shrubs, grasses or small trees can partially screen the view, meaning outdoor dining becomes more than simply relocating the dining room.’ – Tabitha Rigden
Painting fences black
‘There’s a persistent idea that painting fences black makes boundaries disappear and planting “pop”. In reality, I often find the opposite happens. Black-painted fences read as vast swathes of black, showing every mark, absorbing heat and needed repainting. Fading and patchiness look terrible and date your garden. Worst of all, it looks as if you are trying too hard. I much prefer materials that weather gracefully like untreated timber, brick or stone, or timber with a soft stain. If paint is needed, muted greens and earthy tones sit far more comfortably with planting and age more sympathetically.’ – Jo Thompson
Too much green
‘I really dislike green in gardens – unless it is the planted variety. It really jars to see green fencing, green pergolas, green furniture and green light fittings in a garden, as if they were going to blend with the plants and the lawn! They will not – they simply compete and reduce the beauty and effect of the natural green.’ – Charlotte Rowe
Blowing your entire budget on the designer
‘Gardens need long term investment, and I always insist my clients hire gardeners to help them, especially if they’re horticultural novices themselves.’ – Tabi Jackson Gee
