MacColl & Stokes Blog

Your front garden is the first thing visitors see. It sets expectations before anyone reaches the front door. A tired entrance with cracked paving, overgrown shrubs, and weeds pushing through gravel suggests neglect. A well-designed front garden signals care, creates a welcoming approach, and adds value to your property. Front gardens present particular challenges. They need to accommodate practical demands: parking, bin storage, meter access, delivery drop-offs. They face th

Weekend after weekend, the same routine. Mow the lawn. Pull the weeds. Scrub the moss off the patio. Treat the decking before it rots. For many homeowners, the garden has become a chore rather than a pleasure. The frustration is understandable. You want to use your garden, not maintain it. You want somewhere to relax after work, somewhere for children to play, somewhere to entertain friends. What you have instead is an outdoor space that demands constant attention. Most advic

A small garden is not a limitation. It is a chance to design something precise, considered, and genuinely useful. In tenements, townhouses, and new builds with modest plots, compact spaces demand decisions that larger gardens forgive. Every element you include will be visible. Every detail shows. This is not necessarily a disadvantage. Small gardens reward careful thought. When space is limited, you make deliberate choices about what matters most. The result, when done well,

A large garden is a rare thing. Most homeowners in Scotland work with modest plots, so when you have space to play with, you want to use it well. The challenge with big gardens is not lack of ideas. It is knowing which ideas work together. Without structure, large spaces feel empty, disjointed, or hard to maintain. This guide covers how to approach a large garden redesign in Scotland. You will find practical advice on layout, materials, planting, and features that suit our cl

A sloping garden wastes valuable outdoor space. Water pools on lawns. Patios sink or crack. Children cannot play safely. Entertaining becomes awkward when guests perch on uneven ground. For larger properties, the problem multiplies: acres of unusable terrain that should be an asset. The solution is levelling or terracing, but the process demands expertise. Scottish weather, drainage requirements and structural considerations make this more than a weekend project. Poor executi

The difference between a patio and an outdoor living space  is whether you actually want to spend time there. A patio is somewhere you put a table and chairs. An outdoor living space is somewhere you eat dinner, read a book, have friends over, and stay outside until the light fades. Creating that feeling takes more than furniture. It takes thought about comfort, shelter, warmth, and atmosphere. In Scotland, it also means accepting that weather will not always cooperate, and d