The ‘Wild and Woolly’ garden
The layout of this garden was shapeless and tired. The client said that they had, on several occasions, stood in the centre of the garden at a total loss with how to create shape and add different areas into the garden. The way in which this end terrace, with a larger garden than most, was positioned meant there was little privacy from the road. This wasn’t a huge problem as it was a quiet country road, but it did mean that the clients were keen for the garden to have structure to shield them somewhat from passers-by.
An avid gardener, the client was keen on a variety of plants and wanted year round interest. The brief was for a garden to potter and perch in. A curve based design fitted the brief and creating intersecting circles allowed for a natural division of the garden. Yew hedging emphasised the shapes as well as aiding in creating a secret garden ambience.
The clients had recently renovated their home and an open and spacious layout of the main living areas meant frequent and easy views of the garden from a variety of angles. Therefore the design included multiple focal points with planting designed to encourage the clients to venture out.
Views from the rear looked out to neighbouring fields. Two bi-fold doors meant the garden was easy to see, even when seated. For these reasons, the planting plans focused on the use of evergreen and winter flowering plants in the borders behind the house including Heuchera, Sarcococca and Liriope.
The front garden, i.e. the area of garden next to the house to left of the drive, was surrounded by a mature hedge but still was relatively open to the road. The clients didn’t want to complete the hedge so as to enable them a clear view of their entrance gate from the house, but without a purpose, this area of garden would get little use. The design included seating in this area and also proposed a raised planter in the corner. This would not hinder the site line from the house but would partially envelop this part of the garden when enjoyed from the bench.
Most of the trees shown were also existing, so the design needed to work around these as well as four topiarised Taxus baccata trees. These were near the hedge boundary but of a height that made them prominent from most areas, so it was important the new layout looked to allow space for these and framed them correctly also.
Overall, the clients were delighted with the transformation and successional interest means they are continuously learning about how their new garden grows
