Gnome Sweet Gnome.

They say it takes all sorts to make a world.

Why creating a garden around the people who live there is one of the most important aspects of good design.

The thing I love most about being a Garden Designer is that no two clients are ever the same.

Some love their collection of potted plants, others obsess over the perfect barbecue set-up. Some like to deadhead their perennials before breakfast and others are rather fond of a garden gnome. And why not? It’s these little quirks and personal touches that make a garden feel like home.

When I first meet a new client, I spend a lot of time getting to know them before I start thinking about what their garden might look like. How do you want to use the garden? Do you love entertaining outside? Are you a keen gardener or would you rather sit outside with a coffee and enjoy it? Will children be using the garden? Is there a dog to consider?

And, yes, if you have a treasured collection of garden gnomes, I probably need to know about those too.

Designing a garden around real life

It’s very easy to look at gardens on Instagram, Pinterest or in magazines and start compiling a list of things you think your own garden should have. An outdoor kitchen. A fire pit. A pergola. A huge dining table. A wildflower meadow. But there’s little point designing an enormous outdoor kitchen if you rarely cook outside. And a beautiful lawn probably isn’t the right answer if you hate mowing it.

Good garden design starts with understanding how you actually live.

I want a garden to work on a completely ordinary Tuesday evening as well as it does when twenty people arrive for a summer party. That might mean somewhere to sit with the first coffee of the morning. A sunny spot for lunch. Somewhere sheltered enough to sit outside when the weather isn't quite behaving itself. Storage for bikes. Space for children. Or simply making sure there's somewhere sensible to put the bins.

The practical things matter just as much as the beautiful ones.

How should your garden feel?

Once we've worked out how the garden needs to function, we can start thinking about how it should feel.

This is where things become much more personal. Some clients want something calm and restrained. Others love colour, abundance and planting spilling over paths. Someone might want a garden that feels contemporary and architectural, while somebody else wants something softer and slightly wild. None of those answers is more correct than another. The most successful gardens, in my view, are the ones that feel completely at home with both the architecture of the house and the personality of the people living there.

Part of my role as a Garden Designer is bringing all those different requirements and ideas together into something coherent. That inevitably involves editing and simplifying, but I never want to design away the personality of the people I'm designing for.

Gardens aren't show homes

We’re surrounded by images of perfectly styled gardens. They're useful for inspiration, but there's a danger that we begin designing our homes and gardens for the photograph rather than for real life. Real gardens have dogs running through them. Friends move chairs into the sun. Plants occasionally die. Leaves fall onto paving. Someone decides that the perfect place for their favourite pot is exactly where the designer hadn't planned for it.

That's life.

A successful garden shouldn't feel like a showroom you're frightened to disturb. It should become part of the way you live. And over time you'll inevitably add things, move things and make it even more your own. I think that's a good thing.

Your home outside

Before I draw a single line, I want to understand the people I'm designing for. Of course, the architecture of the house, the soil, light, levels, views and surrounding landscape will all influence the eventual design. But so will the people who are going to live with it every day. Because ultimately I'm not designing a garden for my portfolio. I'm designing your garden.

And if that happens to include a garden gnome, we'll find the perfect spot for him.

Mark Hardy Design creates residential gardens across Kent, London and the South East.