This west facing garden was a blank canvas - it was a large patch of unkept grass which had been used only as a drying area for years. The new owners wanted a garden that they could relax in with privacy from the neighbours, a place to entertain friends with a space set aside to grow vegetables. They also needed a shed, a greenhouse and wanted to grow and experiment with a variety of interesting trees and plants. |
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The design was based on 3 offset circles, linked to each other via a stone path. This not only creates a journey right down to the bottom of the garden, but it makes the garden feel wider. French doors lead out onto a large curved deck providing a place to eat and entertain. The first circle has an oriental feel and consists of white gravel, matching the house. It is both functional and decorative - a rotary dryer can be reached easily without leaving the deck, and there are large boulders and a single dwarf mountain pine. |
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The second circle is an area for relaxing in - it the middle there is a circle of lawn for lying on and also an area of paving where loungers can be placed. It is surrounded with plants - on one side there is crescent shaped raised white rendered planter containing a mixture of exotic evergreen planting and on the other side a large bed containing a mxture of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants was created. A beautiful evergreen magnolia tree provides a focal point here. The owners can sit in this 'plant room' without being overlooked by anyone. The final circle (containing the vegetable patch) is only revealed as you carry on the stone path journey through a doorway of plants - it can't be seen from the top of the garden. This area at the bottom of the garden also contains a shed, a greenhouse, composting area and water butts. There is also a quiet place to sit here, read, catch the morning sun or just enjoy the view back up the garden towards the house. Silver birch (providing winter interest with their beautiful white bark) and cherry trees (with pretty pink flowers in spring) were also planted in the grass in other parts of the garden. |
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The following spring the owners wanted to extend the planting area, and bring planting closer to the house, so a new bed was created and a variety of shrubs, herbaceous and bulbs were planted. Two and a half years after the grden was built the garden is now very well established, as can be seen in the image below. |
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