The Project: Creating a low maintenance garden
This was an interesting project; the garden is an awkward triangular shape and surrounded by other gardens with hedges on both sides and a large tree to the rear. There are no external views and the garden slopes gently towards the house.
The house is a traditional 1930’s bungalow that was being sympathetically renovated and fully modernized with an amazing angled, modern kitchen extension added to the rear.
It was important to create a design that not only created a view from the house but also felt like an extension of the living space and made the garden feel longer and wider to bring it back into proportion with the new building.
Quite a long list of requirements for what is a fairly small garden!
THE DESIGN
When designing a small garden with lots of requirements I think it works better to keep it simple, to make the spaces multi-functional and not try to squeeze too much in.
With this in mind, I gave a large proportion of the available space to a paved seating / entertaining area directly by the kitchen extension.
Adding a small raised bed mirroring the unusual angles of the modern extension to fill with culinary herbs.
I added a wide terraced level with deep shrub borders and steps up to create a smaller gravelled seating area.
With a second raised level at the back of the garden to create a wide boundary bed.
I removed the old badly maintained hedge on the left side of the garden and added a new boundary fence to create more space.
A long raised bed along the new boundary fence helped to tie the back and front gardens together; it gave a vista from the kitchen side window, and creates an easily accessible planting area that could be used for vegetables and herbs.
The Work
The Finished Garden
“You created a wonderful tropical look to our small garden space. Loving it everyday - Thanks.”