Garden (December '06)                             New Garden (February '07)

The clients are a young couple with two young children. They have just moved into the house, which has a long, narrow north-facing back garden largely covered in concrete and monoblock. 

The brief is to completely revamp the garden, retaining the concrete patio next to the house but introducing a new lawn, planting to provide all year round colour and interest and space to grow fruit and vegetables. They also wanted a new tree to remind them of their previous garden!   

As the garden is long and narrow the design breaks the space into 3 'rooms'. The patio is lined with new timber planters to create a more attractive area for dining and the middle section of the garden contains the new lawn with a wide path and narrow planting beds. Beyond the lawn a new trellis constructed in pre-treated timber and steel wire with climbers screens the final room. This is a working area with a shed, binstore and large planters for vegetables. Further new planting incorporates a crab apple tree (to fit with the fruit and vegetable theme) and shrubs to screen the garden from the adjacent railway embankment.

The living room overlooks the garden and care has been taken to create attractive views from the house. The planting consists of climbers ( which will soon screen the boundary fences / trellis), evergreen shrubs, grasses and herbaceous perennials flowering from spring through until autumn.