Our clients were building a Georgian-style detached house in one of London’s leafy suburbs. They wanted a garden that helped to settle the large building into the landscape, have spaces to entertain and cook, a water feature, and space for their young family to play. The new house footprint took up most of the space on-site, and the garden completely wrapped around the house. The neighbours views in also needed to be screened off.
We decided to take a bold approach to blending formal, structured entertaining spaces, with looser more naturalistic spaces for planting and exploration. We leaned heavily inot rough grass meadows to reduce the maintenance, and allow for a more wild look as you approach the boundaries.
The garden was designed around a large central water feature that separates the main outdoor coining area from a more relaxed outdoor lounge area complete with a fireplace. A winding gravel path takes you on a journey through layered, textural planting to a decked space for sunbathing and enjoying the summer sun.
The planting on this design aims to reduce maintenance through dense planting, and use a mixture of Hydrangea, textural grasses such as Hakonechloa and Sesleria, amd white and purple flowered perennials that will give a soft, romantic feel to the spaces. A simple planting scheme will also help to pull the different spaces together through colour, texture and form.
The material palette is a simple scheme that will compliment the Portland stone on the house, with tumbled limestone, a binding gravel, and chunky natural timber.
