Courtyard Garden Design & Build

Asked to turn a small rear courtyard garden with looming conifer branches from large neighbouring properties trees making it feel both small & dark.

Following a consultation with the clients they wanted somewhere to sit & enjoy a morning coffees, evening meals all with low maintenance levels & dog proof.

The finished product gives more light, feeling of space, points of interest and breaks up the oblong shape with curves of paving, planting & limestone shingle. Planting was designed to give season long interest with simplicity of maintenance and with lots of evergreen plants with different textures & foliage types & colour will look nearly as good in winter as it does in summer.

With all the old boundary fencing removed a horizontal slat fence was installed looking both neat, sympathetic to the design & also lets light filter through at angles from to plants either side, breezes can pass through refreshing air in the garden whilst maintaining screening privacy when viewed horizontally.

Front aspect walls repaired, borders cleared & weeded with new plants for gaps giving low maintenance interest.

Garden finished & left all ready for the clients new garden furniture to go in & enjoy!

2018 Landscape Projects

It has been a busy year so this post is a fair few months behind the work.

This garden was designed in partnership with the clients. They knew what they wanted but not sure 100% where to put it or how to link it together. We advised some ideas and the client drew up some sketches which we helped adjust with some options of varying shapes too suit the landscape, grading banks for fitting the design in to the sloping garden as well as lining up the elements to bring it all together and look great.

Keen to enjoy their garden and having had a smaller parterre in the past they asked for a ‘Stage 1’  landscape plan for the garden to incorporate:

  • Parterre.
  • Custom Oak Pergola wired to allow clients roses to grow up and over.
  • Patios increased in size & shaped to suit garden with raised wall planters.
  • Power cables for garden lighting and water feature pump.
  • Reclaiming overgrown Ilex boundary and exposing 2 lovely old Oak specimen trees which are now lit at night.
  • Natural separation of areas of garden using hedging.
  • Smoothly curved contour starts in front garden and continues through to rear garden creating interest as well as giving flat areas for Parterre and access pathways.
  • Re-turfing of all effected areas of landscape.

Curved paved pathway from rear patios to Parterre.

The job is now one we also maintain and are continually doing small projects to other areas of the garden to bring it all up together for summer 2019.

Lawn mowing with Rear Rollers

 

No matter what anybody says… There is just no substitute for creating lawn stripes that stay all week than a good old heavy rear roller mower. Wheeled mowers, even with the latest fad of having a mini roller on the back make only reasonable stripes just after they are cut, but will fade over a few days…as well as leaving those tram lines in the lawn that are not attractive at all…

If you would like your garden to be cared for by staff who have the knowledge, attention to detail and equipment to do the job right, give us a call as summer is just around the corner… although going by this weeks weather you would think it is already here!

PS – We do a lot more in the garden than just caring for your lawns

Landscape Project – Wheelchair access including play area with Special Needs Swing and fall protection coloured tiles

Just in time for Xmas we completed this private project transforming a derelict garden full of weeds & stone piles into a simple and all area wheelchair accessible garden.

With very tight access we had to use the smallest machines which just squeezed down the side path!

New left side fence to replace delapidated fence. Low palisade fencing with custom wide gates separate the various areas including summerhouse/patio with veg planting borders, main lawn with storage shed/patio and finally a play area with cushioned tiles clearly visible from kitchen & lounge with double swing set secured into the ground.

Paved & gently sloped paths throughout with wide turning areas for wheelchair.

It’s all a bit cold at the moment for them to enjoy fully… but spring is on it’s way and those sunny warm days will be here soon.

 

Solving soil over front path from birds, rain and wind…

Our client was getting frustrated with soil in the house from their front path. As the path is slightly lower than the soil borders, when it rains soil floods onto the path, or small animals digging kick soil onto path.

We suggested the installation of this wooden divide between the path and border. It sit’s 50mm above the path so will stop most soil from digging animals and all soil from flooding onto path.

We painted it back, this helps it blend into the border rather than standing out as bright new wood and our client is very happy with it.

We got a text two weeks later to say it has done the job perfectly.

Trees and Shrubs we Planted early 2017 looking great!

As part of a whole garden landscape project we planted this section of trees and shrubs along the side of a driveway to give balance of year round screening, interest between and low down breaking up the wall with various shrubs.

All looking great with the autumn colours of the deciduous trees doing their stuff…. client very happy as they see it every time they pull in the driveway. Although not so happy that the signs of the beginning of winter are here already!

 

Patio Surround Complete

Patio surround in previous post completed. Composite of raised planters which will be filled with shrubs and herb garden, and a low Taxus (Yew) hedge to break up the wood surround.

With the new puppy being quite small even the tight spaced Taxus (Yew) hedge was still no match for a determined puppy, so we have added a light plastic screen to the backside of the hedge until he gets too big to squeeze out the gaps at the bottom of the plants!

Landscaping - Raised Sleeper Border & Taxes Hedging
Landscaping – Raised Sleeper Border & Taxes Hedging

Landscaping - Raised Sleeper Planter, Taxus Hedge & Gate
Landscaping – Raised Sleeper Planter, Taxus Hedge & Gate

Landscaping - Raised Sleeper Border, Taxes Hedge & Gate
Landscaping – Raised Sleeper Border, Taxes Hedge & Gate

Landscaping – Paving, Timber edging & Infill shingle

A small but no less important landscaping job for Stripe Gardens. Tidying up the rear of a garage area which was low light, muddy and needed to be able to store bins and firewood for easy access.

Roots coming off the conifer trees would have made simple shingling look messy and would have kicked off under trees not creating a clean edge.

Following the extension of the paving from current paving to the side of the garage out past the rear of the garage and down the side of the log store. This gave non muddy access to wood during the winter months or wet periods.

Using a timer 100cm wide we created a border as close to the trees as root systems allowed, added stepping slabs up further behind bin store and infilled the rest of the area with shingle to match other areas around the garden.

Simple & effective and now the client no longer has to get muddy feet when pooping out for extra wood or to put something in the bins further behind the garage.

Landscaping – Paving, Timber Edging & Shingle

Contemporary Style Apartment Gardens Surrey

This week we are starting to put final elements into Landscaping external gardens for our  clients building a stylish new block of apartments.

Four contemporary gardens and a communal entrance area have been landscaped around the newly renovated Tannery Apartment Block in Godalming, Surrey.

Manhatten style apartments lend themselves to minimalist gardens with light elements giving feel of space and light around the four storey building.

Artificial Turf for low maintenance and a healthy look throughout the year.

Horizontal Slat fencing reduces shade from above angles allowing sun to flow through, yet when looked at horizontally provide a screen for privacy.

Raised Sleeper planters add more natural products to the garden planted with Betula utilis trees with bright white stems and light, delicate foliage for movement and light density canope so as not to block too much light from gardens.

Limestone chipping used around paving as a light stone colour with grey hints, will darken when wet to various grey hues.

Front communal entrance has trees planted either side of entrance, turfing and Beech hedging to border edgings of property to give seasonal interest and screening.

Final pics to be posted on completion.

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Artificial Turf – Tree Planting – Betula Utilis – Raised Sleeper Border – Limestone Chipping Shingle

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Tree Planting – Betula Utilis – Raised Sleeper Border – Limestone Chipping Shingle

Landscaping – Turfing – Tree Planting, Betula utilis (Silver Birch) – Hedge Planting, Fagus silvatica (Beech)

Landscaping – Turfing – Tree Planting, Betula utilis (Silver Birch) – Hedge Planting, Fagus silvatica (Beech)

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Artificial Turf – Tree Planting – Betula Utilis – Raised Sleeper Border – Limestone Chipping

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Tree Planting – Betula Utilis – Raised Sleeper Border – Limestone Chipping

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Raised Sleeper Border – Limestone Chippings

Landscaping – Fencing – Horizontal Slat – Tree Planting, Betual utilis – Raised Sleeper Border

 

 

Patio surround with raised borders, gates and Taxus hedging

You’ll no doubt notice the Taxus hedging is missing but 2 raised borders and gates have been installed and we are just awaiting delivery of the hedging to complete.

Client is getting a new puppy and want to be able to let it out in a contained area around the patio, but wanted something more interesting than a fence, or continuous hedge.

So we split the area up using the sleeper borders which give another bonus of giving the client a herb garden we’ll mix in with small shrubs to bring some multi level colour to the area.

Gates we custom built to span the pathway perfectly without having to cut into the current patio allowing their eventual removal if desired once the dog no longer needs containing.