Posts Tagged ‘Garden Design’

I’ve been working with a family in Monmouthshire for around a year now so I thought it would be nice to share a few pictures of the first phase which we planted in the Spring and is now really coming to life.

The Barn Garden sits away from the main house but we wanted to create a a space that could be enjoyed with family and friends in a less formal settting.

When I first arrived at site, the garden looked like this…

As you can see, it was pretty much a blank canvass. The levels were quite challenging as the drop from the barn doors was quite significant and there was also quite a steep slope away from the building in two directions.

The other challenge was that the two sections of the building don’t meet at right angles so the paving layout had to be thought through carefully to make sure it felt coherent and looked balanced.

We planted the garden in the Spring, fortunately just before the challenges that presented with the shortage of plants and it’s quite amazing how well everything has come on in such a short space of time.

I wanted the planting to have a naturalistic feel as it’s situated in a rural location. The seating areas obviously need to look good all year round so there are some evergreen grasses and structural plants but the summer palette of perennials brings a softness and links everything to the surrounding landscape.

The next phase of the project is now underway for the main house and it’s looking great already. There’s a lot to construct with a new swimming pool, formal garden and water rill which will act as a land drain in wet weather and provide interest in dryer summer months. Here’s a snippet of what’s to come…

Jamie Morgan is the local landscaper on this project and he’s been brilliant. Looking forward to working with him for the next stages and on future projects too.

If there’s one thing that gets me going it’s when I arrive at site to carry out the planting and I have to pick up a fork because the beds aren’t prepared properly. Read more

Working to budgets is part of what I do, but it’s not always easy when there are so many choices available and if make tweaks along the way.  We’re undertaking a small building project at home and it’s exhausting making decisions, even though we’re doing some of it ourselves and therefore don’t have any time pressures. Read more

It’s a while since I visited Arne Maynard’s garden with my some of my garden design peers last year, but we were all so inspired last time that we decided to arrange another visit. Read more

I watched the first episode of The House That 100k Built last night.  I don’t know about you, but I think it’s one of the most inspiring programmes of its type on TV.  I especially love the way Piers Taylor inspires the use of alternative, sometimes waste, materials to create something really individual and inexpensive that elevates the design to another level. Read more

I’ve been drawing the design for a large garden in Hurley this week and it involved rather a huge chunk of time working out where all the radius points of my free-hand curves were. Read more

The run up to Christmas always seems to go so fast and I never really know why.  But I’ve been baking a lot this week too which probably hasn’t helped too much with getting my task list done! Read more

I have recently been working with a client near Camberley who has a very challenging garden. She contacted me a few months ago with some pictures of the site and it became clear very quickly why she didn’t really know what to do. Read more

I went back to see my Epsom project last week which, apart from the new shed, is all finished. Read more

I went to visit the garden at Allt-y-bela yesterday, Arne Maynard’s home in Monmouthshire. I can’t tell you just how inspired I feel after a couple of hours in his garden. Read more