GARDEN DESIGN
ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN
My clients asked me to create an outdoor living space that catered for all the family. Preferring a softer, more traditional style with a ‘little wildness’, they requested an outdoor dining area, places to sit and relax and space for their teenage children to enjoy the outdoors. They also wanted to reinstate the disused vegetable garden and needed an area to set up a semi-permanent heated pool that the family used throughout the summer.
My design has the formality of a traditional English garden with elements of the rustic charm that my clients had hoped for. Closer to the house, three ‘garden rooms’ lead into one another and make up the main entertaining space. An oak pergola defines the outdoor dining area, with a circular lawn making a feature of a beautiful old apple tree. The sunken garden includes two bespoke rose arches and secluded lounge seating.
Curved evergreen hedges separate the formal areas from a large informal lawn featuring swathes of wildflowers and curvaceous herbaceous borders. A sinuous path leads past the circular paving area, where the pool will be located and onto the garden office. An informal woodland, dominated by an established coppiced hazel, leads through to the new vegetable garden with its traditional raised beds and greenhouse.
(The garden is currently under development – photos to follow.)
