Top Gardening Tips to Create a Stunning View from Your Bi-fold Doors

Author Profile
Alexandra works in the marketing department, and in 2014, bought her first house, which turned out to be somewhat of a ‘project’.
Since then, the whole house has needed renovating, which has helped her gain a knowledge of basic DIY, decorating and making the best of a small space.

By Alexandra Giles

Accessories can bring an uninspiring area of garden to life
Careful maintenance makes all the difference
How to pick the right plants for year round colour and coverage
Carefully placed pots and planters instantly inject colour into an area

Bi-fold Doors offer an unprecedented view of the garden all year round. To make the most of the view, you can try our simple gardening tips and tricks to ensure the scenery out of your doors is as impressive as the doors themselves.

Take a seat

The entertaining area is a good place to start, as you are likely to spend the most time there. Firstly, get rid of debris by sweeping up any leaves and then hire or borrow a pressure washer to blast the decking or paving and your garden furniture. If your table and chairs still look a little worn, a quick sand down and a fresh coat of paint can make a huge difference. You could even introduce a splash of colour to coordinate with your Bifold Doors.

Classic colour combinations which work well for garden entertaining spaces are:

Crisp yellow and black
Vibrant purple and orange
Relaxing green and blue
Rust red and cool blue
Cuprinol stock plenty of lovely paint colours which have been designed especially for outdoor living to ensure lasting coverage. Tester pots start at just £1 so you can add a little colour to your wooden furniture before you commit to painting your entire garden furniture set. Once you’ve repainted your furniture, you can mix up the colours on your cushions, throws and planters to match or contrast with the colours.
Perfect Plants
Artfully placed pots and planters can give a colourful boost to a gloomy corner. Bold, bright plants, such as geraniums, come in warm colours ranging from red to purple and give an instant Mediterranean feel when they flower in spring and summer.
Pretty climbing plants such as clematis or wisteria will quickly grow to disguise an ugly wall, and brightly painting a garden screen or and trellis will instantly liven up a dull corner. To ensure you get the best coverage for as long as possible, look for climbers which look equally impressive in autumn such as Chinese Virginia creeper which turns a beautiful deep red in autumn, or evergreen climbers such as ivy. Glacier ivy is a particularly good choice as it’s a very hardy evergreen which can thrive in the shadiest conditions.
Shabby borders can be hard to maintain, especially if you don’t have the time to get stuck into weeding. The easiest way to keep them tidy is to cover them up and add accessories. Adding weed barriers will supress weed growth but still allow plants to be planted through the barrier. You can then cover the barrier up with coloured slate chippings, pea gravel or bark to bring the look together. Perennials are ideal border plants as they flower every year so you won’t need to replant each spring. Evergreen plants and shrubs such as beautifully scented lavender will provide interest all year round and encourage wildlife such as bees and butterflies to your garden in summer.
Accessorise your garden
If you are looking to create something completely unique, Pinterest is absolutely full of ideas. One of the biggest trends that appears across the board is to use unusual household objects for planters. This can be anything from toilets to teapots, even old filing cabinets can get a new lease of life when filled with a cascade of colourful nasturtiums. Visit your local vintage shop or flea market and look for objects with an area that can contain enough soil to house the type of plant that you want. A plant will only grow as big as its roots will spread, so if the roots are contained in a small pot, it will stunt the plant’s growth. You will also need to drill a few holes into the bottom of the container to allow for drainage, or if there is a hole already (such as a plughole in a sink), lay some broken stones over the hole. This will still leave room for excess water to escape, but at a gentle trickle rather than it flooding straight out.
Random objects tend to look best when they are displayed in a considered way, such as a teapot planter on the corner of every step, or a row of old baskets containing colourful flowers hanging at regular intervals along a fence. For a more fun, quirky style, a row of different coloured and sized Wellington boots can make quite an impact in a garden when filled with bright tumbling flowers. Hiding features like this within well-established areas of gardens can make for an unexpected surprise and is a great way to bring a splash of colour.
If your taste is more traditional, then DIY and garden centres stock a great range of traditional terracotta pots. For a more modern look, galvanised steel pots can look incredibly effective against slate chippings, and best of all, they look a lot more expensive than they actually are!
There are plenty of garden accessories available in the shops that can bring an area to life, especially in the evening. String fairy lights through trees and place tea lights in jam jars to create an enchanting vista. Solar powered garden lights can be found cheaply in most homeware stores, and as they spike into the ground, no construction is necessary.
The bigger picture
As for the main area of the garden, if you have a lawn, cut it. Even if the grass isn’t in tip top condition, it’s amazing how much neater it will looked if it’s trimmed and edged. The same goes for hedges; you don’t have to be a master in topiary to give them a quick tidy up. If you don’t want to do the job yourself, then there are professional gardeners working in most areas who will happily tackle the job for you, often at a very reasonable charge.
Bringing your garden back to life doesn’t have to be a major job; it’s amazing how a few little bursts of colour can make such a difference to the view from your Bi-fold Doors.
Further Resources
Winter doesn’t have to be a barren time for your garden with these 25 Top Tips for Making the Most of Your Garden this Winter.
For some tips from the experts, check out the latest advice from Britain’s best garden designers.
To ensure you incorporate your Bi-fold Doors into your garden effectively, read Sarah Beeney’s Tips for Bi-folding Doors from the show Double Your House for Half the Money.