THE BRIEF

The brief for this family garden was that it should be a grown-up place, that had to incorporate enough open space to play badminton, and include a garden office, and be attractive to birds.

Apart from a silver birch with a preservation order on it and the raised terrace which lead off the back of the new extension, the design of the garden was very much dictated by the only other feature the client wanted to retain – a large weeping willow which dominated the back half the long narrow garden making it almost impossible to reach the bottom.

After some expert work by a tree surgeon and further careful consideration, the willow became central to the design, forming the backdrop to dramatic raised fibreglass beds. These were laid out on the diagonal to help widen the long, narrow, awkward space and to screen the garden office from view, thus creating a lush green private space at the bottom of the garden for the client to work in.

Bamboo was used throughout the garden along the boundaries to help screen the new fences and link texturally to the willow. A beautiful new multi-stem silver birch and three standard Pyrus ‘Chanticleer’ trees were also planted to bring height, privacy and attract birdlife into the garden.

We love the end result – a truly original garden that utilises new materials and successfully fuses together different influences.