Most garden design ideas you come across online were photographed somewhere warmer and drier than Edinburgh. The planting is Mediterranean, the paving is bone dry and the sun is sitting at an angle we see for perhaps six weeks a year.
That is no criticism of the ideas themselves, but it does mean a fair amount of translation is needed before they will work on a plot in Morningside, Corstorphine or out in the Lothians.
This guide gathers the garden design ideas we come back to most often when planning gardens across Edinburgh and central Scotland. They are organised by theme rather than by style, because the questions that decide whether a garden succeeds here tend to be the same whatever look you are after: where the shelter comes from, how the levels are handled, what the ground does after a wet week and what the garden will look like in February.
In short
- Zone the garden around where the light actually falls, not where the plan says the patio should go.
- Treat levels and drainage as design decisions rather than groundwork to be sorted later.
- Build shelter first, then plant into it. Wind stops people using Scottish gardens far more often than cold does.
- Choose hard materials that cope with freeze-thaw and stay sound underfoot when wet.
- Plant for structure across the eight months of the year when very little is in flower.
What makes a Scottish garden different to design
Three things shape almost every design decision in this part of the world: rain, light and wind.
Rain
Edinburgh is a good deal drier than the west of Scotland, but the rain here tends to arrive across many days rather than in short bursts, so surfaces and soil rarely dry out fully between October and March. Ground that sits damp for long stretches affects which plants thrive, how paving should be laid and whether a lawn is really worth keeping.
Light
Light is the second factor. In midwinter the sun barely climbs above the rooftops, and a garden behind a tenement or beneath a mature sycamore may see no direct sun at all for weeks. In June the opposite is true and you can sit out until ten at night.
Wind
Wind is the one most people underestimate. Exposure matters along the Forth, on the slopes rising towards the Pentlands and in the gaps between buildings, which tend to funnel the wind rather than block it.
None of this rules out ambitious design. It simply means the ideas below have been chosen for how well they hold up in year three, not just for how they photograph on the day the build finishes.
Zoning: deciding what goes where
Follow the light before you follow the house
The natural instinct is to put the seating area by the back door. In a great many Edinburgh gardens that is the shadiest, dampest corner of the plot, particularly on north-facing gardens behind Victorian terraces.
It is usually worth spending a few weekends noting where the sun lands at breakfast, at midday and in the early evening before committing to a layout. A terrace at the far end of the garden that catches the last of the evening light will often be used far more than a larger one that sits in shadow from mid-afternoon.
Give every zone a reason to exist
Zones tend to work best when each has a clear purpose: somewhere to eat, somewhere to sit in the sun, somewhere for children to play or for a garden office, and somewhere to grow.
In a smaller plot two zones are usually plenty, and three or four can start to feel fragmented. Separating them with a change of level, a change of surface or a low hedge keeps the sight lines open, whereas a run of fencing can make even a generous garden feel like a series of corridors.
Plan the route between them
Paths and steps are what make a garden feel considered rather than assembled.
- A path used every day would normally be at least 900 millimetres wide, and around 1.2 metres if two people are to pass comfortably.
- Because surfaces here spend so much of the year wet, and often carry moss or fallen leaves, a textured finish with proper grip usually matters more than the colour of the stone.
- Steps are worth keeping to a consistent rise, ideally between 150 and 170 millimetres, so that nobody stumbles on them in low winter light.
Levels and drainage as design, not groundwork
Work with a slope rather than against it
A large number of Edinburgh gardens sit on a slope, from Colinton and the Braids round to Blackhall and Corstorphine Hill. Terracing turns a slope that is awkward to use into a series of level areas, each of which can take a different role.
Retaining walls in natural stone or brick tie in with the city's built character, and in a conservation area a rendered blockwork wall may look out of place against sandstone neighbours.
Whatever the material, a retaining wall needs somewhere for water to go, usually gravel backfill with a land drain behind it and weep holes through the face, otherwise the ground behind it becomes waterlogged and starts to push.
Design the falls into every surface
Paving would normally be laid with a fall of roughly 1 in 60 to 1 in 80 away from the house, so that water sheds across the surface instead of pooling on it. Where the garden falls towards the building, a linear channel drain along the threshold is usually the tidiest answer.
Lawns deserve the same honesty. On the heavy clay that runs across much of the south and west of the city, a lawn that is used for anything more than looking at may need drainage beneath it, or it may be better replaced with a surface that copes with foot traffic in the wet.
Consider permeable surfaces
Porous paving, gravel and resin-bound finishes laid over an open base let rain soak away where it lands rather than running off into a drain.
In a front garden this helps with surface water and, depending on the circumstances, can have a bearing on whether a new driveway needs consent from the council, so it is always worth checking before committing. The trade-off is that permeable surfaces need a base built for the purpose, so they are rarely the cheapest option even when they are the most sensible one.
Shelter: the garden design idea most plots are missing
Sit in a sheltered corner on a bright April afternoon and the garden is a pleasure. Sit in the same spot with a north-easterly running across it and nobody stays long.
Shelter is what turns a garden from something to look at through the kitchen window into somewhere people actually spend time, and it is surprisingly often left out of the plan altogether.
Filter the wind rather than block it
A solid fence or wall tends to create turbulence on its sheltered side, with eddies reaching back several metres. A hedge, a slatted timber screen or trellis with climbers slows the wind rather than deflecting it, and that gives usable shelter over a much greater distance.
Hornbeam and beech both hold their brown leaves through winter and cope well with Edinburgh conditions, yew rewards patience, and near the coast hawthorn or sea buckthorn tolerate the salt that would scorch softer choices.
Build shelter into the layout
The house, a garage or an outbuilding can form one side of an outdoor room, and a seating area placed with its back to the prevailing south-westerly is warmer than one facing into it. A pergola with a partial roof, a covered dining spot or a garden room extends the season at both ends.
Shelter also changes what will grow. Plants that struggle in an exposed bed often do perfectly well a few metres away in the lee of a hedge.
Hard materials that cope with Scottish weather
Hard landscaping is where a garden design either holds its value or quietly falls apart. Freeze-thaw, near-constant damp and the moss and algae that follow all test a material far harder than they would further south, and the way something is laid matters as much as what it is.
Natural stone
Sandstone sits naturally alongside Edinburgh's built fabric, and Caithness flagstone, quarried in the far north, is dense, slip-resistant and lasts for generations, though it comes at a price. Whinstone setts make handsome edgings, paths and thresholds.
Imported sandstone varies a great deal in density, and some of the softer, more porous stones absorb water and begin to flake after a few winters. A low-porosity stone laid on a full mortar bed, rather than spot bedded on dabs that leave voids beneath, and pointed with a proper jointing compound will look better for far longer.
Porcelain
Porcelain paving absorbs almost no water, so it resists staining and the green film that stone picks up in a shaded garden. It does need a rigid base, a bonding primer and careful cutting, because the joints and edges are where the quality of the laying shows. A textured finish gives grip in the wet.
Timber and composite
Softwood decking in a damp climate needs a clear gap beneath for air to move, and even then the shaded side tends to green up and will want an annual clean. Composite boards hold up better in the wet and need less attention, though they can feel warm underfoot in full sun and rarely pass for timber up close.
For screens and fencing, a hardwood or thermally modified softwood outlasts standard treated timber, and posts set in concrete with a proper wind load in mind are worth the extra cost on an exposed boundary.
Gravel and self-binding surfaces
Gravel is inexpensive, permeable and forgiving of uneven ground. Its weakness is that it migrates onto lawns and paths unless it is held by a firm edge, so a steel or stone edging is usually part of the specification. A self-binding gravel compacts into a firmer surface that is easier to walk on and better suited to a front path or driveway.
Planting for shorter light and a longer winter
Structure first
The growing season in central Scotland is shorter than the one most planting guides assume, and for a good part of the year a garden is seen without its flowers. Evergreen structure carries it through:
- clipped yew and hollies
- low hedging of Ilex crenata or Euonymus in place of box, which has suffered badly from blight
- multi-stemmed trees such as birch, Amelanchier and rowan whose bare outlines look as good in January as they do in leaf.
Choose plants that peak in the season we actually have
Perennials that flower from late spring to early autumn and then hold their seedheads earn their space twice over. Grasses such as Deschampsia and Molinia, Persicaria, Hydrangea and the taller Sedum all stand well into winter and catch the low light.
Very late-flowering plants may not get their moment before the first frosts, so a scheme that relies on them can feel unfinished.
Shade, wet ground and exposure
- Tenement back greens and gardens beneath large trees suit ferns, hellebores, Brunnera and Sarcococca, which flowers in midwinter with a scent that carries across a whole garden.
- Ground that stays wet suits the shrubby dogwoods, whose red and orange stems are at their best in the coldest months.
- Coastal exposure calls for tougher shrubs such as Escallonia, Olearia and Griselinia, though the latter can be caught by a hard frost inland.
Working with the site rather than against it almost always produces a garden that looks after itself better.
Plan for the upkeep you will actually do
A design that depends on weekly attention will drift within a couple of seasons if that attention is not going to happen. It is worth being realistic at the outset about how much time the garden will get, and whether some of that work, from hedge cutting to seasonal planting, would be better handed to a garden maintenance team in Edinburgh who can keep the design as it was intended.
Ideas for particular Edinburgh garden types
Tenement back greens
Often shared, usually shaded and reached through the stair, a back green rewards modest interventions: a level seating area near the sunniest wall, containers on feet so they drain, a small tree for privacy from the windows above and planting chosen for shade. Anything that involves moving materials through a common close is worth planning around the access.
Long, narrow terrace gardens
The classic Victorian and Edwardian plot is long and thin, and the temptation is to run a path straight down the middle with lawn either side. Dividing it into two or three rooms, offsetting the path and placing something to draw the eye at the far end makes the same space feel wider and considerably more interesting.
New-build plots
Gardens on newer developments around Winchburgh, South Queensferry or the edges of the city often start as a blank rectangle with compacted subsoil beneath a thin layer of turf. Improving the soil and establishing a shelter belt on the exposed side usually come before anything else, because planting into unimproved ground on an open site tends to struggle however good the design.
Front gardens in conservation areas
Stone boundary walls, railings, gravel and clipped hedging all sit comfortably with the surrounding streetscape, while somewhere discreet for the bins tends to be the detail people most wish they had planned for. Each part of the city has its own conditions and its own character, which is why our advice differs from one neighbourhood to the next across the areas we cover.
Bringing the ideas together
The strongest gardens rarely try to include everything. They pick the two or three ideas that answer the particular problems of the site, whether that is shade, a slope, exposure or wet ground, and then execute them well. A rough sketch of where the sun falls and where you would like to sit is a perfectly good starting point for a conversation with a designer.
Because our garden design and build work is handled under one roof, with landscape architects, stonemasons, joiners and horticulturists on the same team, the design can be costed and detailed as it develops rather than handed over and priced later.
Gardens such as our New Town and Windsor Street projects in the projects gallery show how these ideas translate into real Edinburgh plots, and our forthcoming guide to landscaping costs in Edinburgh gives an honest picture of what different approaches tend to cost. If you would like to talk through ideas for your own garden, we would be glad to arrange a design consultation.
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