Courtyard Gardens

We promised that we would go into detail about choosing a style of your garden and elaborate on the gardens we mentioned in our previous post.

Today we are going to discuss courtyard gardens :)

Separate courtyards and hedge-enclosed divisions that often bear little relationship to one another or to any obvious ground plan are typical of the Moorish gardens in southern Spain. They reflect the influence of a desert people for whom small enclosures - if only a tent - provided welcome refuge from the heat and perils of a vast uninviting desert.

Similarly, in the Mediterranean regions of Europe, the Middle East and western United States, courtyards provide privacy and shade, respite from the relentless heat of the midday sun. The contrast between this haven and the heat and dust of the surrounding countryside is made all the more delightful by the introduction of water. Bubbling up in a bowl, cascading from a small fountain, lying deep, dark and still in a central well or simply reflecting the surrounding court, its very presence refreshes the spirit.

When designing your garden, then, do bear in mind the advantages of creating an enclosed, shady oasis. You are sure to yearn for it in the scorching heat of high summer. Such an area is quite inexpensive to establish and very easy to maintain. Nor does it demand a lot of space. You can, for example, pave an area as small as 5 metre sq/30 sq yard, and surround it with a hedge of Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). Pierce the hedge with arched entrances and place a couple of comfortable benches within.

Add, if you wish, a container-grown flowering shrub and a small raised pond (we will talk about ponds also - Gina has one - well it is more like a bloody lake!) ;)

You can work endless variations on this theme, enclosing the courtyard with a wall rather than a hedge, and using the wall to support a colourful climber. Create an interesting pattern of tiles or bricks for the floor area and choose from the vast range of garden furniture the style best suited to your setting - whether in wrought iron, wood or one of the excellent modern plastics.

If the overall effect is harmonious, you will find yourself retreating to sit in this tranquil spot far more frequently than you may ever have imagined.

if your garden is large enough, you could consider dividing it into a number of different, highly individual areas, each one separately enclosed within walls or hedges. Depending on whether you use sombre evergreens such as the Italian cypress or flowering species such as Viburnum tinus, and whether you make your enclosures rigidly geometric or flowingly curvaceous, you can achieve a range of effects from the impressively formal to enchantingly casual.

Try to make each individual area distinct, so that you experience a sense of novelty and surprise as you move from one to the other. You could give each of these 'garden rooms' a separate theme. One, for example, might be devoted entirely to plants of a single colour - white petunias and pelargoniums look wonderful set against a cypress hedge - or to plants from a single family, such as rose.