How to create a beautiful garden design

6 May 2022

Garden design is crucial to create a manageable but visually high-impact beautiful garden. Autumn and winter are the perfect time to plan your garden ahead of next spring, so now is the ideal time to get inspired, research and plan the best garden design to suit your lifestyle.

Keeping an outdoor space in a picture-perfect condition requires year-round hard work, especially if you have mixed use areas, but by designing your garden with intention, you’ll have more time to relax in it rather than being a slave to its maintenance.

Having provided customers with garden edging products NZ wide for over 20 years, we enjoy seeing our metal landscape edging used in transformational garden designs. Whether your outdoor space needs a pick-me-up, or you are planning a complete garden design overhaul, here are our top observations of beautiful garden designs.

Proportion

This is perhaps the most important aspect of garden design. Design a garden in proportion to the property. Too often large properties have borders and planting that, in comparison to the house, look rather awkward – too small with too few plants. If you have the space, be generous with both borders and planting.

The relationship between the property and the proportions of the borders and features is key. Think of the garden and house holistically, rather than as an accessory or separate entity, use your design to connect them.

Balance

The most beautiful gardens combine lines, symmetry, and shapes to match the style of the surroundings, but also have a visual balance between the layout of softscape and hardscape elements.

EverEdge Garden Edging on a lawn against a stone wall

What are hardscape elements?

Hardscape elements of garden design include paths, garden bed edging, walls, water features, decking and sitting areas.

What are softscape elements?

Softscape involves the plants; not just the colours but their horticultural needs, how they change over the seasons, their lifespan, size, speed of growth and the all-important seasonal appearances.

Landscape edging is an element of garden design that marries hardscape and softscape elements, an easy garden fix to make any space orderly. Giving clarity to distinct zones of a garden while renovating rough edges of paths and borders, garden edging creates an easy to maintain, functional and attractive feature – a beautiful garden doesn’t have to be a labour of love.

Complement your surroundings

The internet is awash with images of beautiful gardens. Travel and other people’s gardens are always inspiring; however, what works in a Balinese courtyard may not translate quite so well to a south facing Christchurch NZ garden. Try not to let your imagination run wild and design a garden to complement and celebrate the characteristics and growing conditions available to you.

Whether your tastes are more traditional, or you prefer a contemporary garden design, your garden is a private idyll. To learn more about how metal landscape garden edging is used in beautiful garden designs, contact the team today, or call 021 925 389 for a free no-obligation chat.

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A red lawn mower is cutting grass on a gravel road

Winter lawn care: preparing your lawn and edges for a strong spring comeback

30 July 2025

Winter might give you a break from summer’s relentless mowing schedule, but it’s no time to forget about your lawn. While grass growth noticeably slows in the cooler temperatures, your lawn still needs some attention through the colder months. With just a little care now, you’ll be rewarded with a healthier, more resilient lawn that requires less maintenance and attention come spring – and at the heart of a healthy lawn is EverEdge garden edging . Mow smart Whereas growth warm-season varieties of grasses like kikuyu, couch, and buffalo slow, cool-season grasses such as perennial rye, fescue, and Kentucky blue grass remain active through winter and benefit from regular mowing. Every 3–4 weeks should do the trick, depending on growth. Keep the mower height up a little higher than you usually would set it to allows for a thicker leaf area to absorb more light and helps the lawn stay robust. Mow on a dry day and use a catcher to reduce fungal issues. Sharpen mower blades and clean them between cuts to prevent disease spread - healthy grass starts with clean tools. Light and airflow matter Low winter sun and a change to trees can put your lawn under stress. Your lawn needs light to be able to photosynthesise so where necessary, prune overhanging branches to allow more light through to vulnerable areas of lawn. Regularly raking leaves prevents the blanket of tree debris smothering the lawn and helps reduce the risk of disease. Moss and fungal issues thrive in damp, low-light conditions, so improving air and light circulation is key. Feed roots, not leaves Feeding your lawn in winter isn’t essential, but it can be beneficial - particularly in warmer regions or for cool-season grasses. But it’s important to choose a formula that supports root development and soil biology – this helps to improve resistance to stress and fungal issues.