Encouraging Birds into the garden was important.
It is always good to go back and see the gardens you have designed, landscaped and planted a few years after the work has finished, to see how it is all settling in.
A journey down the garden
The first garden was designed for a couple who had a mature garden and were very knowledgeable and keen gardens, but as they got older they needed a garden which was easier to maintain. So the planting beds were reduced in size and planted with dense planting with all year round interest that would be easy to look after.
A wide sweeping path leads to the bench at the bottom of the garden
Also the narrow gravel path was replaced with a wide sweeping paved path, which was easy to walk on and less work to look after. A wide bench was placed at the end of the path, so views down the garden could be enjoyed. There was an enthuses on using plants to attach the wildlife particularly birds, So a row of Crab- Apple trees was planted, so not only could the blossom be enjoyed in the spring but also the birds could feast on the fruit in the Autumn. Bold and vibrant colours were chosen in the planting to cheer the sole at all times of the year.
The second gardens I went back to see were a front and back garden in East Grinstead. The back garden has strong lines of hard landscape and bold blocks of planting, giving it a crisp modern feel, with stunning warm Indian sand stone, and the walls painted a soft yellow orca and caped with the same warm stone.
The sunken garden with hot tub, the yew hedges are still to reach their mature height.
The sunken hot tub garden is screened from the main garden and the side of the house by Yew hedges, to aid privacy. The hedges have to still reach their mature height but are doing well after only a couple of years.
Views across the main dinning terrace
The planting round the main dinning terrace is in bold and dramatic blocks and squares and is beginning to fill nicely, the corners of the beds are picked out by low lighters, that give a gentle light pool and atmospheric soft light to lead you round the night garden.
The front garden and sweeping new drive edged by generous planting
The front garden, needed a new larger drive to accommodate the new budding drivers and their first cars. So a larger circular drive was created, as there would be quite a bit of turning on the drive, gravel would not be suitable so instead a soft coloured gravel mix was used in a resin bonded surface. The colour scheme was pulled through from the back garden with the same orca walls and soft yellows and corals and purples for the planting. Clipped mounds of box and low Ballard lights, show the edge of the drive. A dense textured planting edges the drive set below the branches of groups of Crab-Apple Trees which are settling in well and making good growth. The trees give height and scale to the scheme. The front garden has a good balance between the needs for parking and generous planting to soften the hard structure and link the house to the garden. A wide path sweeps through the planting to reach the side gate into the back garden.
The third garden I went to see, was again landscaped only a couple of years ago and sits almost on the Downs on a very thin chalk soil. The new wooden extension of the house steps out into the mature shrubby of the garden which remained. The clients wanted a garden that was easy to look after and fitted with the down
Planting beds by the house give way to the informal lower garden
land views beyond. So the design was to have a very light touch. A more formal upper garden was created round the new terrace just below the large windows of the extension adding to the existing mature shrubby. With minimal planting beds with soft country style planting
An informal garden, views back to the house from the long grass meadow.
The lower garden was to be much more informal, with few new trees and to become a meadow. As the garden is close to the Downs and the soil very poor it was decide to use a normal grass turf and allow the down land plants to seed and populate it over time, so that wild thyme, marjoram, ox-eye daisies, to name but a few would follow, which is beginning to happen.
A newly planted Birch draws the eye to the end of the garden and the Downs beyond, in front is set the rustic oak pergola, so views can be enjoyed back up the garden.
Mown paths cut through the grass meadow leading to the central bird bath and on down to the rustic pergola at the end of the garden.
The meadow is under planted with naturalising narcissi, to give early spring colour before the grasses and invading wildflowers get going latter in the year. The meadow is cut in August and the cuttings cleared to keep the lawn poor and encourage the next batch of invading wildflowers to take hold.
The garden is still very young but is beginning to settle down well and is much enjoyed by the new and keen novice gardeners who own it.
I hope you continue to enjoy your own gardens as Summer unfolds.
If you want to transform your garden into a new and wonderful space, then do give me Emily a ring 01273 470753