I must admit I’m not a big fan of grey when it comes to UK gardens (we’ve got enough of it in the sky)!

But that aside, take a look at the pond steps…

The shallowness of them makes it perfect for creatures great and small (including children) to easily escape if they inadvertently find themselves in it…

But what delights me the most is how the concentric steps form a pleasing pattern which draws your eye into the pool, adding interest into the design.

This is such a SIMPLE but lovely idea – think how dull that pond, regardless of the colour, would be otherwise!

IMPORTANT – Features alone are not good design!

It is vital to remember that it doesn’t matter how stunning a garden feature you have, if you haven’t designed the overall layout it won’t matter how much money you spend, it will never look right.

As a professional garden designer with over 30 years of experience, I have witnessed too many times people spending a small fortune on their garden and not have it look good. It’s heartbreaking to be called in to sort it out afterwards.

That’s one of the reasons I created my online garden design courses and tutorials, to show people the simple formula I developed over a 10-year period, which enables anyone to quickly and easily design their garden. See the example student garden below – they had no previous design experience!