the garden with a view

The garden was mainly laid to lawn with mature shrubs on either side providing privacy from the neighbours. The only patio area was under the overhang of the house and was a dark space with no room for a table and chairs and no place to entertain guests. 

 A complete garden survey including levels was undertaken and from this three concepts were created based around a large decked area with an extended raised decked dining area. The concepts were created to keep the garden fairly low maintenance but to encourage the family out into the garden and to provide a space to entertain family and friends. Mood boards were created to help the clients visualise the concepts.

The clients decided they wanted decking rather than paving as the main hard landscaping material. This gave us extra versatility to change the levels without extra hard landscaping costs . Although the design included a large expanse of decking, this was broken up at either end with areas of gravel and space for planting. Lighting was also added along the main length of the decking, around the raised dining area and also on the edge of the steps by the gravel.

In order to incorporate the garden into the surrounding countryside and also to provide a degree of privacy from the public access across the fields at the back, the main planting chosen were tall grasses that would create a distinct barrier between the raised dining area and the rest of the garden. Further plants were chosen for their fragrance, wonderful seed heads and structural properties to provide all year round interest. In the following year the clients were already planning further developments to the planting and what was intended for them to be a low maintenance garden had in fact turned them into budding gardeners with containers brimming with wonderful plants.