This garden has the strange honour of being my Pandemic ProjectTM – about two thirds of the way through saw the announcement of Lockdown 1.0 and as a result I shut down work on site whilst we took stock. After a few weeks of being tired from looking after my lovely toddler rather than designing and building gardens, work resumed and the project came together, albeit after an altogether unprecedented interval…

This was a pretty substantial build and a much longed-for garden for my lovely clients. Having renovated their beautiful home over about 15 years it was finally the turn of the outdoor space. As a result of this wait, we made sure to take time in the design phase to ensure they got everything they wanted and that they were getting the maximum value for their investment.

Being a large garden it was important to create areas that felt like their own space but also that flowed together as a cohesive whole. Upon stepping out of the kitchen door you enter the Weinor glasshouse with porcelain flooring, which extends beyond the glass to give a seamless transition to the outdoors. In summer the glass can push all the way back leaving an 8 metre wide threshold and bringing the garden ever closer to the home.

From here the hard landscaping continues by way of either a gravel path adjacent to the house or a standout Millboard boardwalk that articulates its way over the rootzone of the large wild cherry tree and then steps down onto a great size Millboard deck for a further entertainment or relaxing space.

Laying out materials to get a feel for them and make sure the clients were happy before committing – all part of the detailed planning process

This then sits you next to the rose arch walk, a series of nine green oak archways running the bottom width of the garden, a rose on each post and sinewy brick edging winding its way between them. The gravel path has a feature chevron barrow track inset with encaustic tile style slabs. Herringbone brickwork sections make a small courtyard at one end of the walk before a corten screen marks the threshold to the driveway and at the other end of the arch walk sits a space waiting for the next development due in 2022 – wait and see…

The soft landscaping is abundant, cottagey without being too bustly with touches of formality. A large proportion of the flowering perennials are white and there is also a profusion of silver and grey foliage. The most formal element is the addition of four fantastic yew pyramids and short sections of instant yew hedging radiating from a statement Foras water fountain, placed close enough to both glasshouse and Millboard deck to be seen and heard from both. Another fountain, this time stacked sandstone, sits on a brick plinth at the centre of the herringbone brick courtyard adjacent to the double-height oak window to the living room and master bedroom.

Please click the images below to see some snapshots from the garden and never hesitate to get in touch should you wish to discuss anything from this project, or indeed your own garden dreams

The build for this project was relatively complex and lengthy and involved many different skillsets, a fair bit of forward planning and liaising with other trades, in particular gas engineers (for the gas feed under the glasshouse into the kitchen) and electricians (for the new power feed down to the bottom corner of the garden for the next phase of development)

Please click through the photo gallery below for more detail on the construction phase of this project

Don’t forget, if you’re interested in starting your own garden project please feel free to get in touch for a chat about your ideas and to discuss how we can work together