One of the areas which really impressed me at Gardening Scotland this year was College Street which was the range of front garden solutions designed by students from Scotland’s Horticultural Colleges.
Each of the eight front gardens had the same dimensions but each offered a different vision for modern living. They showed that you can add height, seating, water features and veg growing alongside plants, flowers and trees in a kerbside space. These gardens incorporated different building materials, textures and shapes but they were all inspirational for those looking to maximise the potential of their front garden and offered visions to allow for planting and rainwater escape.
Home is a garden designed to capture the essence of the natural landscapes of Scotland. The garden has been created with two sides: a coastal side, depicting the rivers, lochs, harbours and seas of Scotland and a Highland side, inspired by Scotland’s rural countryside of moors, mountains, hills and glens.
The garden has been designed as a south facing front garden for a career focused couple who enjoy time in their garden but don’t have much time for maintenance. This is based on a new build property with good quality hard & soft landscaping throughout.
This Persian style garden design is designed for a young busy couple who are time poor and need “off street” parking but still want to have an attractive front garden that meets their needs and has kerb appeal. The aspect of the garden is north or east facing so gets very little sun so all the planting is done with shade tolerant plants. The majority of the planting will be sunken so it needs to be compact growing to not interfere with the parking space.
Based on Arabic garden design principles, ‘Bayet’ highlights the importance of gardening to those fleeing conflict & finding a new home in Scotland. It incorporates a crescent shaped rill, Middle Eastern inspired planting and an arched bridge representing the connection from one home to another.
The Little Bookworms Garden has been designed for a retired couple hoping to inspire a love of gardening and nature in their granchildren.
The Pink Wheelbarrow 
What beautiful ideas on ways to created garden space and lovely outdoor living spaces. Thanks for all your photos – gave me a few ideas to incorporate in my yard. Thanks for sharing.
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It was really inspiring to see what the next generation of gardeners might do!
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These gardens are so good! Such a lot of thought has been put into them ; I wish those students well in their future careers. I especially love the first design.
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So good to be inspired by the vision of others Clare!
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