Posts Tagged ‘Garden Design Surrey’

I have recently started working with a new client in Leatherhead and, very conveniently for me, they live within walking distance of my house.  This project has quite complex levels and it will be necessary to terrace the garden in order to make it more usable.

My clients have recently had an extension built on the back of the house and, as part of this project, the terrace was installed by the builder and so was the retaining wall.  Unfortunately, the retaining wall is starting to fail which is due either to the absence of drainage or because the footings are not appropriate to the soil, which is heavy clay.  Such a shame that they will have to spend more money on this element of the garden, but so important to ensure that the problems are rectified – hopefully the existing wall can be saved.

The garden now is really overgrown and this makes it feel small and enclosed, but there is an amazing willow tree which we really want to make a feature of the garden.  When you stand underneath it and look up, it’s quite a spectacular site.

The existing steps are too narrow and you might be able to see that the dimension of the risers is different for each step.  As they will need to be rebuilt anyway, I am proposing that we widen these steps so that they feel more in balance with the bi-fold doors and open up the view from inside the house.  Adding an extra step will make it more comfortable to get to the lower lawn.

The slope of the garden will be terraced to create three separate parts of the garden, a lower lawn, upper lawn and decked seating area which has been located to catch the evening sun.  The main terrace by the house isn’t quite large enough for a table and chairs but as the dining room is just inside the bi-fold doors, we have chosen to go with lounge seating for this space.

A couple of the existing trees will be taken down, the conifers on the boundary and also the prunus in the middle of the garden.  My clients are really keen to open up the space so that they can see more sky and because the main part of the garden is so much higher than the level of the terrace by the house, it will be important to keep the planting here lower.  We will replant a few trees along the boundary.

The main focus at this point is to sort out the retaining wall, but I am really looking forward to seeing the garden once it’s been cleared and you can really get a better sense of the space.  I’ll be sure to share the progress with you as I move the design to the next stage.

I spent a day last week putting together the Scope of Works and construction details for my project in Horsley so that I could present the final drawings to my client and also send everything off to the landscaper who is now putting together a full quotation for the build. Read more

August was an exciting month in work terms.  Normally things start to slow down in the autumn but I think the late burst of summer has really got people thinking about their garden.  Let’s face it, the weather’s been pretty horrendous this year, so it’s hardly surprising! Read more

I have recently been commissioned to work with a couple in East Horsley.  They’ve lived there for just over the year and now that they have completed some renovations to the house they are ready to tackle the garden. Read more

July has been another busy month for me – I think the week of summer we had (at last!) has put everyone in a spin about their gardens.  The persistent rain in the UK this year has meant that whilst our gardens are growing like mad, the best we can do is look and wonder how we’ll ever get the chance to get out there and keep everything in check. Read more

Last week was the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.  Although I’m a bit behind with blogging about it, I still wanted to share my thoughts and pictures.  I was lucky enough to be there on Press Day so taking photographs was much easier despite the dreary weather! Read more

June has been another wet month which we now all know is a new record for the UK and it has certainly brought its challenges to the garden world.  I planted up a garden in Leatherhead a couple of weeks ago and despite being on chalky soil, which is normally so well drained, it was like working with mud pies.  Needless to say, we didn’t need to turn on the new irrigation system! Read more

Last week I presented the concept design and sketches to a client in Beare Green near Dorking.  They are about to embark on a house building project where the plan is to create a garden room at the back of the house. As they are nearing retirement, the original plan was to move somewhere else, but instead they have decided to stay put and make some changes.  This is how the garden looks now… Read more

May has been a wonderful month for me and I’m sure you can easily guess that the Chelsea Flower Show for me has been the highlight of the year so far.  Not only did I have the opportunity to design the stand with English Garden Joinery this year, but we were also awarded with a Certificate of Merit.  My huge apologies go out to you regular readers for mentioning it again. I’m sure you’ve heard more than enough about the subject by now (!) however if you did miss out, you may wish to read the blog post I wrote about it last week. Read more

It was the last day of the Chelsea Flower Show on Saturday and another hot and tiring day, but somehow knowing that it was our last gave us an extra burst of energy and by the time the show finished at 5.30pm we really did feel quite sad to be dismantling the stand.  It was a really brilliant week and we got such amazing feedback about the design and the craftmanship of the products that English Garden Joinery were showcasing – we even had someone interested in buying the whole stand! Read more