NEW BUILD Cottage gardEN, woodbridge
A charming new build house that needed a total transformation of its blank canvas garden, in record short time, in the middle of lockdown. Despite the completely empty, muddy and sloping site, we could see great promise: a private and sunny outlook and the borrowed view of mature trees. All was not lost. Our client had recently downsized and left a much bigger, beautiful, well established garden and was in urgent need of a room of her own, a space to find solace in the garden. The garden needed to provide space for entertaining friends and relatives, the levels needed to be re-worked to ensure easy access for those less steady on their feet. We designed the garden to be divided on three levels with a lower terrace for soft seating, up a level to a small rectangular lawn (essential for the dog) and then up again to a dining terrace with pergola and fairy lights for evening dining.
We worked hard with the client to persuade a local landscaper to fit the construction of the garden into his busy schedule and build it to a restricted budget, working with him and the client to choose materials that were both affordable and available with no lead-time. After poring over paint charts to find the perfect blue/grey shade, the rather glum fence was transformed by a stylish coat of paint that referenced colours in the house. The hunt for a perfect summer house that was insulated and could be heated to genuinely provide an outdoor room took time and many visits and debates over shape, sizes and bespoke colours and trims, but was well worth the result. However, for this keen and enthusiastic gardener the garden also needed a spectacular planting plan. Our design ensured the garden and the different seating areas would be enclosed by generous planting beds. These we relished filling with the client’s favourite plants saved from the previous garden and the addition of a new palette of exuberant, scented and colourful plants that would lift the soul and raise a smile on even the greyest of days.
Credit: Annie Green-Armytage Photography
PROJECT JOURNEY:
