Paul Bangay is a first-rate worldwide yard designer, and has designed gardens all everywhere in the world.
And he has described his non-public yard, Stonefields, as being the sum of all his ‘travels and inspirations’.
He’s now set out these inspirations in his newest e-book ‘Paul Bangay – A Life in Yard Design’.
He writes about his early childhood influences, the gardening books from the sooner that impressed him, the mentors who gave him alternate choices and the journey that launched him to new design concepts that he would possibly adapt for his gardens. It’s a story correctly instructed, wealthy intimately and has inspiration for us lesser gardens and gardeners too.
So let’s try how inspiration interprets proper right into a stupendous yard, and ask Paul the place he believes yard design is heading subsequent.
What’s now Stonefields was a cow paddock when he first set eyes on it. Nonetheless he appeared on the view and knew they may assemble a surprising home and gardens there.
And though it’s an distinctive yard, there are programs we’re able to analysis from it.


In ‘A Life In Yard’ design, Paul says that the scenario ‘jogged my memory of how the Italians create their totally positioned and proportioned villas.’ When he first visited Stonefields he parked his automotive the place the home now stands and realised what an unbelievable view a home would possibly command. So he was strongly influenced by Italy in its design.
Yard model influences
A Life in Yard Design traces Paul’s gardening influences over his life. He quotes Vita Sackville-West, Sissinghurst and ‘English yard model’ as his earliest affect.


Paul Bangay quotes Vita Sackville-West as one among his early yard influences. The rose yard at Stonefields has an English nation yard really actually really feel to it.


Everytime you approach Stonefields, you see the home framed by a circle scale back in a privet hedge. The central rill – a stream of water down the center – is influenced by Iranian yard design. It’s a surprising however easy strategy of framing the home.


The privet spyhole is grown spherical an iron ring.
Create a change of tempo with yard rooms
Even do it’s a must to solely have a small yard, it’s fascinating to see how one can change the tempo by dividing it into ‘yard rooms.’ Paul Bangay does this magnificently at Stonefields.
It’s furthermore sensible. Stonefield’s good views are due to its place on the perfect of a hill. And that makes it a extraordinarily windy spot.
So dividing up the yard with hedges and partitions not solely creates an extra fascinating yard. It creates an extra sheltered one.
Phrase the excellence in setting in fairly a number of elements of the yard. Immediately behind the home, the yard is open and formal.
On every side, there are smaller, additional intimate yard rooms, planted additional intensely.


Change the tempo by creating totally completely completely different ‘yard rooms’. Chances are high you will as properly defend a yard from wind by dividing it up with hedges and partitions.


Clipped self-discipline shapes on the ‘parterre’ in entrance of the home. It’s a peculiar interpretation of an accurate yard, utilizing easy shapes and repetition to create affect.
Design particulars – how one can hyperlink totally completely completely different yard themes collectively
Should you try the design particulars at Stonefields, you in all probability can see options we’re able to all use in our gardens.
Though there are probably spherical 10 or additional ‘yard rooms’, all totally completely completely different in character, they’re unified by means of a reasonably blue paint.


You may hyperlink totally completely completely different elements in a yard collectively by repeating a paint coloration all by means of. This enticing blue is used all by means of the yard, visually linking various very totally completely completely different yard rooms.
Using vistas furthermore hyperlinks the yard rooms collectively. Everytime you stroll from one home to a novel, your eye is led by means of by the balanced compositions of planting and gateways. You could be drawn to care for exploring.


Have a look on the vistas at Stonefields. Paul Bangay makes use of pillars, gates, steps and planting to attract the attention into the following yard room. You may see that the blue paint is repeated, regardless that the model of those gates is type of grand in contrast with the picket gate of the earlier picture.


This vista leads the attention from a neat, geometric pleached hornbeam hedge onto a softer and extra relaxed a part of the yard. Paul Bangay is assumed for his mastery of steadiness and type in yard design.


The selection vista – the pleached hornbeam hedge with its self-discipline hedge beneath and one completely different hedge behind goes appropriate spherical this yard room and leads out onto a drive lined with self-discipline balls. You may nonetheless see the blue gates.
Be a part of the yard to its setting
Not all of us have lovely countryside views, nonetheless it completely’s at all times value fascinated regarding the architectural or geographical context everytime you’re designing your yard.
As an illustration, on this put up Mark Walker has used his dwelling’s place all through the Victorian seaside metropolis of Margate as a kick off level for his yard. And on this put up on the necessities of yard design, Catherine Heatherington reminds you to ponder what sort of bricks your personal house is fabricated from everytime you’re designing your yard.
Paul Bangay goes a step additional than that! In A Life In Yard Design, he says that he chosen the limewash render of the home ‘to imitate the soil. It has anchored the home to the panorama.’
He furthermore marries the formal borders to the view. The borders are in stronger, additional outlined colors than the panorama. Nonetheless the shapes of the planting echo the traditional eucalyptus forest earlier.


Paul created herbaceous borders that echo the comfortable shapes of the panorama earlier. The muted greys of the traditional eucalyptus bushes are the right backdrop to the purples and reds of Lepechinia salviae (Chilean pitcher sage) and Penstemon ‘Firebird’.


Paul chosen the color of the home to echo the color of the soil, ‘anchoring the home to the panorama.’
Go big even everytime you’re designing a small yard
Paul is legendary for designing higher gardens, however he’s an expert at creating wonderful small dwelling yard designs. He has one tip – go big? See it on this video:
One of the simplest ways forward for yard design – the place to subsequent?
On the top of A Life In Yard DesignPaul muses as as to if he ought to change Stonefields, nonetheless it completely has been described as ‘good’. It is likely to be highly effective to strengthen it, so Paul’s subsequent yard, the place he’ll create his subsequent chapter in yard design is in England, all through the Cotswolds.
Nonetheless he believes yard design is altering. ‘We’re all seeing the outcomes of native local weather change. Australia is getting hotter and drier. The UK is getting wetter, after which drier. So we’re searching for additional resilience in gardens. For me, which suggests planting native crops. That’s been a big new course.’
Should you’re searching for resilient crops for typical borders, see 10 lovely however sturdy perennials for too moist and too dry summers.
He furthermore says that you need to take heed to ‘what the panorama requires’. Which implies quite a bit a lot much less laborious landscaping and utilizing native or recycled offers. It’s vital to make it doable for gardens drain precisely into the earth reasonably than overloading city drains and inflicting flash floods.
Though Paul’s yard design work is ‘excessive finish’, that signifies that he has labored on a variety of of in all probability essentially the most formidable gardening initiatives on the planet, his ideas apply to gardens with smaller budgets. Uncover methods to economize on yard design to adapt his tricks to your non-public yard.


Paul thinks that softer, perennial plantings which might be native climate resilient and enticing to native wildlife will perhaps be a strong design course ultimately.
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