Stillness, alienation and wonder - those are the three elements at the heart of this style. The fact that your garden is slowly preparing for a period of rest does not mean that it is not still full of things to enjoy. Use winding paths, peepholes, hidden corners and mirrors. And use the deep green of Norway spruce as a proscenium behind which a beautiful garden image or a romantic hedgehog cottage emerges. Ivy and moss are welcome - it should all look fairytale-esque and slightly overgrown.
Cushion bush as fairytale element
The shapes in this garden trend are decorative: think of an old picture frame with ivy growing up and over it, a disused chair covered in moss and a beautiful checkerberry or patio cyclamen on the ‘seat’, an old overgrown door that leads nowhere, pots with splash patterns and garden paintings with surrealistic botanicals. Combine this with fantastical planting in alien colours such as silver bush and blue fescue. And the trees? That’s where you hang lanterns, glass beads and wooden chains as decorative elements.
Stimulate your senses with shine and scent
Use fantastical materials, such as pots with mother-of-pearl shine or gradient colours, marbled bowls as a mini pond or birdbath, and weathered metallic surfaces. It doesn’t all have to be entirely natural, as long as it speaks to the imagination. If you want to stimulate the senses with scents then silverberry, Abelia and Mirte are plants which smell particularly strongly now, as do rosemary and cotton lavender.
Colour chart: Sleeping Beauty’s forest
The colours in this style are mysterious and shrouded. Think of misty grey, forest green and moss green, with some soft pink to lilac and the dark red of Virginia creeper here and there. Together they create the exciting and mysterious feeling that matches this garden style.
