Before and after gardens

Garden makeover ideas, from real gardens.

Every garden makeover here begins with a photograph of a real customer garden, and shows the redesign that came back. No show gardens, no stock photography and no garden built only for a photograph. Open one you like and the same planting, materials and style can be rebuilt around a photograph of yours.

After: the same strip as a planted courtyard, with a paved path through deep borders of lavender, purple salvias, coneflowers and grasses to a small table and chairs

Part sun · narrow plot

Wildlife garden

A narrow strip of lawn, redesigned as a paved path between deep borders of lavender and salvias.

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After: the same plot with a brick and stone path curving to the shed between deep borders of roses, delphiniums, lupins, foxgloves and peonies, with terracotta urns at the top of the path

Full sun · fenced plot

Cottage garden

A bare, straw coloured lawn and a deck crowded with pots, redesigned as deep borders of roses, delphiniums and lupins.

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After: the same garden as a Mediterranean gravel garden, with pale gravel, flagstone stepping stones, clipped olive trees in terracotta pots, drifts of lavender and a timber arch

Full sun · acid soil

Mediterranean garden

A rectangle of lawn, redesigned as pale gravel, olive trees and drifts of lavender.

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After: the same garden with an irregular stone path winding through grasses, white anemones, foxgloves and peonies to the chairs at the far end

Shade · town garden

Small town garden

Long grass and a hosepipe in a shaded town garden, redesigned as a winding path through grasses and shade planting.

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After: the same passage with a stone flag path running through deep shade planting of ferns, hostas, foxgloves, periwinkle and a Japanese maple against the fence

Deep shade · narrow run

Shady side passage

The bit down the side where the bins live, redesigned as a shaded path of ferns, hostas and foxgloves.

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After: the same yard with pale limestone paving, a curved lawn edged in brick and deep borders of catmint, salvias, coneflowers and climbing roses

Full sun · clay soil

Modern garden

Slabs, bare soil and a blank brick gable, redesigned as curved lawn and deep planted borders.

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After: the same plot as a meadow garden, with a stepping stone path through deep borders of purple salvias, crimson scabious, pink coneflowers and grasses, wisteria and clematis on the fence beneath the gable, and the deck edged with lavender

Part sun · clay

New build garden

A rectangle of new turf beside a blank gable, redesigned as a meadow of salvias and scabious, with climbers on the fence and the shed.

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After: the same plot as a white gravel garden, with one straight path of large grey slabs to a small patio under a white pergola, deep borders of white rock roses, lamb’s ears and white foxgloves along sage green fences, and agaves in terracotta pots

Full sun · clay

Long garden

A long plot of grey gravel and slabs, redesigned as a white gravel garden with one slab path to a pergola at the far end.

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After: the same plot as a cottage garden, the lawn replaced by beds of delphiniums, foxgloves and roses either side of a stepping stone path to a metal bench, climbing roses on the side fences, catmint at the foot of the wall, a terracotta pot on the step and thyme in the joints of the patio

Part sun

Tiered garden

A slab patio, a step and a raised lawn, redesigned as a cottage garden with roses on the fences for privacy and a bench at the top.

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After: the same plot as a cottage garden, an oak framed gazebo with a slate roof where the summerhouse was, a teak table and chairs under it, a gravel path through lavender and catmint, borders of pink roses, blue delphiniums and silver lamb’s ears on both sides, clematis and roses on the black fence either side of the gazebo

Full sun · dry

Gazebo garden

A lawn gone brown and dry and an old summerhouse, redesigned as a cottage garden with an oak gazebo and a gravel path through lavender.

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After: the same view with the pergola in full wisteria flower over the deck, a lawn with curved edges and deep borders of foxgloves, mullein, geum, catmint and black eyed Susans, a path of sandstone slabs through gravel to a small sandstone patio with a bistro table and two chairs to the right of the lawn, and the brick walls and back shrubs where they were

Full sun

Wisteria pergola garden

A patchy lawn under a wisteria pergola, redesigned as a curved lawn with deep borders for bees and a sandstone patio to the right of the lawn.

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After: the same view with a path of grey and buff stone laid in herringbone curving down the middle to the foot of the spiral staircase, borders of Mexican feather grass, Japanese forest grass, blue fescue and heuchera on both sides with blue delphiniums and purple top verbena rising through them, lavender beside the path, lilac clematis and pale climbing roses on the fences, and the staircase, the brick house and the shrub where they were

Part sun · clay

Urban garden

A narrow strip of artificial grass under a spiral staircase, redesigned as a curved herringbone path through borders of grasses and perennials.

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After: the same view with paths of pale gravel winding out from the patio between drifts of purple salvias, lavender, pink coneflowers and yellow black eyed Susans, a small pond with a pebble edge and a stepping stone on the right, an untreated oak bench against the back fence, the fences stained a warm brown behind blue Californian lilac and orange firethorn, and the tree, the conifer and the patio where they were

Full sun · clay

Wildlife pond garden

A wide lawn scorched brown, redesigned as a gravel garden with a small pebble edged pond, drifts for bees and an oak bench at the far end.

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After: the design drawn from the patio edge, with a winding path of buff gravel held by low stone edging, deep borders on both sides of pink and white roses, astrantia, catmint, white foxgloves, blue delphiniums, sea holly, white brunnera and lady’s mantle, a white clematis over the trellis on the left, the yew where it was, the fences stained a warm brown and a weathered teak bench under the trees at the far end.

Full sun · acid

Winding path garden

A lawn beside a patio, redesigned as a winding gravel path with low stone edging through deep borders of roses and catmint, to a bench under the trees.

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After: a design drawn from the owner’s photo, with large grey slabs laid at an angle with dark pebbles between them, curved beds edged in metal holding New Zealand flax, agave, yucca, purple salvias, orange geum, white gaura and Mexican daisies, the fences stained charcoal with star jasmine on the right one, an L of teak seating built round a gas fire pit in the back corner, an olive tree in a tall planter beside it, the boarded wall and the potted shrub where they were, and the neighbours’ brick houses and roofs beyond.

Light and soil not recorded

Fire pit garden

A lawn gone brown between a boarded wall and a fence, redesigned as a paved garden with slabs floating in pebbles, architectural planting and teak seating built round a fire pit.

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After: the same garden drawn as a cottage garden, a flagstone path down the left, a circular lawn in the middle, deep borders of blue delphiniums, pink and white foxgloves, purple hardy geraniums, pink and peach roses, catmint and box balls, espalier fruit trees on the wall at the back, a timber arch, oak table and chairs on pea gravel at the far end, and roses and lilac clematis on the warm stained fence.

Full sun (the design’s notes) · soil not recorded

Cottage garden plan

A lawn beside a concrete path, redesigned as an English cottage garden: a circular lawn in deep borders, a flagstone path, espaliers on the wall and oak seating on gravel at the end.

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First 3 designs free · no card · UK plants

Built by professional gardenersReal UK plants & planting plans Photorealistic in about two minutes

What a garden makeover actually changes.

Look through the before photographs above and the same few things keep coming up. A lawn running the whole length of the plot with nothing to stop the eye. Borders too narrow to hold more than one row of plants. A deck or a slab of artificial grass taking the space that planting wanted. Seating at the far end with long grass or no clear route leading to it.

None of those are expensive problems and none of them are structural. That is the quietly encouraging part. In most of these gardens the bones were already good: a decent boundary, a mature tree, a change of level, a wall worth keeping. What was missing was a plan for the middle of the garden, which is exactly the bit people find hardest to picture.

So the honest answer to what a makeover changes is: less than you think, and in better places. Deeper borders. A path that bends. A destination at the far end. Planting chosen for the light and the soil you actually have rather than the ones you wish you had.

See your own garden this way.

Every garden here started as a photograph. You take one from the back door, mark your beds and pop in their measurements, and the design comes back on your own garden, with your own fences, your own trees and your own walls designed into it rather than over the top of them.

The planting plan that comes with it names every plant properly, how many of each and which bed it goes in, so the garden you fall for is the garden you can actually plant. Browse every garden style, read the planting guides for your soil and light, or see how the garden design software works.

Design my garden – free