TAKE THE EDGE off a BALCONY

If your outdoor garden is confined to a slab in the sky, you can still make it flourish

Аpartment living can be modern, exciting and at the centre of everything. But when you move in, your open area is a stark concrete or tiled floor, so creating a captivating garden can be a challenge. Especially when you have to start from scratch because the previous occupiers took everything with them. But a bit of greenery goes a long way to making the air you breathe up there so much better.

1 BLEND YOUR GARDEN STYLES

A mix of contemporary and formal garden styles - minimal and without fuss - allows your balcony to breathe. A hedge in a raised garden bed with a sleek, marble-effect facade gives you privacy and hides the balcony's walls. Trees planted in freestanding containers offer protection from the fierce summer sun or miserable rain. And they look gorgeous to boot!

If you crave a new must-have plant later on, don't sweat it - you have room behind the swing seat to add in another layer of green.

2 MAKE YOUR OWN RULES

Play around with texture, height and volume - there's barely an unadorned smooth surface here between the fern and macramé table runner. Their shapes are countered nicely by the angular pergola.

3 CONCENTRATE GREENERY

Positioning your greenery in one corner frees up the rest of your balcony for you to move around in. Style wise, the blending of bricks and timber in the same ochre tones enlivens what could otherwise have been monotonous walls.

4 UP AND AT 'EM

Play around with height and explore the idea of vertical gardening rather than just randomly cramming in plants at ground level. The soft foliage is a solution to the walls of rendered concrete you so often get on balconies. Now you can relax!

5 SMOOTH THE VIEW