Patio garden design can be a challenge of invention and ingenuity. Often space is restricted, especially in an urban environment surrounded by concrete and brick. The temptation is to fall back on hanging baskets, windowboxes and ground level containers. The real challenge in patio garden design is to make the most of a new dimension – the vertical space – to create something simple but stunning.

You may have a flight of stairs where you could grow climbers around vertical support railings and place a planted pot on each step. Clematis looks great weaving and turning from the bottom to the top of the stairs. On side walls trellis fixed using spacers will allow you to add a Spanish feel in your Mediterranean patio garden design. Shade loving plants in brightly painted pots will create a real point of interest. It is possible to find flowerpot holders that are designed to compliment any patio garden design with different hook devices that fit on walls, pipes and trellis.

A key feature in patio garden design is to reflect the passing year in your choice of plants. Ferns and evergreens in shaded areas protected from winter winds will be constant companions for all seasons. Spring and summer bedding inject vibrant but short lived visitors bringing fire-red geraniums and perpetual colour of petunias in all the colours of the rainbow along with the begonias.

Why not lift up your patio garden design giving a creative vertical dimension. Using the vertical space perfectly compliments your earthbound patio pots and planters. Exotic banana plants live happily in large terracotta pots and if you group Australian Tree Ferns or plants with striking varigated leaves the overall effect is stunning. One added advantage of mixing vertical pots and planters is that on a hot summer’s night you can pop citronella candles into empty pots and hang them on walls lighting up the garden and keeping nasty bugs away. A great combination of looking good and doing good at the same time.