Horley

This commercial development was situated in the large grounds of farmland. The new houses had a sympathetic style with black clad, red brick farmhouse style homes with post and rail fencing surrounding them.

They had somewhat weak native hedging in place, yet to fully achieve a suitable hedge. My first contact with my client discussed this and the very poor drainage conditions. A land drain had been added through the centre of the garden, but the lawn and planting scheme were still very much suffering. There was a small sandstone seating area outside the patio doors pinto the kitchen.

Top of the agenda was to add a seating area further to the rear of the garden to make much more of the easterly aspect, extending the hours of sunlight. Our other discussions looked at how to add a heavily planted garden with lots of colour that could be seen clearly from the kitchen and living rooms.

When work began on the plans, I wanted a circular seating area with curved paths leading back in several directions to the house. This would provide irregular shaped beds and better access to the garage/gym. The irregular shaped beds would create islands of plants, mainly herbaceous that would provide a riot of colour, albeit with a limited colour palette and interest throughout the year with a focus on the changing seasons. I also chose to reshape the edges of the existing paved space to achieve more continuity with our new design.

Black granite was chosen to edge both the newly shaped patio and circular seating area. This again gave the feeling of a fuller garden construction. The circular seating area was paved in the same grey sandstone as the original existing space.

To alleviate the drainage issues in the garden, the circular seating was slightly raised to make sure the water ran back into the beds. These beds were also raised with a powder metal edging, that was black to match the style of the house and would also neatly retain their organic shapes.

The pathways were gravel to make sure we had the best possible drainage. We opted to use stabilisation grids for this, which added a weed membrane and prevent the beaching effect many gravel spaces suffer with. The paths would be solid, free draining and usable all year round.

The plans and build were quickly taking shape, when my client and I decided the garden lacked height. A pergola above the seating area was the solution. An aluminium pergola with hand wound Louvre system was added to provide the perfect addition above the seating area and with a watertight design could provide shelter in changeable weather.

An early decision was made to keep all the native hedging but to transplant it to the rear boundary to really thicken up this hedge. With the garden built, the team and our client were really pleased with the result.

The final stage will be to come back and plant up the garden in spring. We already have some great plans for this in mind and all involved can’t wait to see the garden in full swing this coming summer! It showcases what can be done even in the heaviest of soils.