Flights Of Fancy

Embrace uneven landscapes, advises garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair. Those lumps and bumps are the perfect excuse for installing the steps of your dreams.

- James Alexander-Sinclair

In the immortal words of Led Zeppelin: ‘There’s a lady who’s sure / All that glitters is gold / And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.’ I have always imagined this staircase to be something that sashays seductively as it disappears into the cumulonimbus; it is made of fine limestone carved with mythical creatures and entwined with exotically scented flowers. One thing is for sure, this is no paltry indoor arrangement, but the spiffiest set of garden steps ever.

There are very, very few gardens without steps, even if it is only one step down from threshold to terrace. This is because the world is not, thank goodness, universally level. There will always be dips and drops, hills and hollows as we attempt to landscape our gardens to our convenience. Steps, more than any other hard landscaped feature in our gardens, have the ability to be so many things. They can be discreet and modest, coquettish, extravagant, sweeping or narrow,but whatever style you choose they all have to work. It is the perfect example of form following function: no matter how pretty a step might be, it is no use if it doesn’t get you up the hill.