We trickled a pebbly stream into a formal slate-faced, stepped water feature to connect our client’s garden to the local environment and give plenty of space for growing vegetables and entertaining friends.
Like many of our clients, Roger and Elizabeth love spending time in their garden. However, a steep grassy slope rising from their patio, lots of established shrubs and a shady area under a large tree meant that it wasn’t the relaxing haven they dreamed of. Instead it meant lots of hard work, impractical spaces and no way to enjoy a backdrop of The Berkshire Downs – one of the reasons they moved to the area some years ago.
GreenArt was given the challenge of making access to the garden safe and easy, creating manageable lawns and flowerbeds and incorporating water and a vegetable garden, while maintaining a strong link with the rising Downs behind.
“The first challenge was to turn an awkward slope into a series of terraced levels that would be easy to access and provide practical garden space,” explained designer and managing director George Smith. This was achieved by building four sets of retaining walls, which were then faced in Welsh slate to create a dry-stone effect and topped with grey sandstone to give a precise finish.
A formal pond was created along the length of the middle walls, incorporating two cedar seats, and a waterfall was set in the back wall. Water flows into this from a smaller, upper pond fed from a shallow pebble-lined stream trickling down from the top of the garden.
Steps paved in grey sandstone rise from the patio, through the garden and over the water feature. A sleeper bridge crosses the stream leading to a herringbone brick path framed with an oak pergola leading to an oak gate onto The Downs.
As Roger’s passion is growing vegetables, three large raised beds were constructed on a base of compacted gravel, allowing for easy access and manoeuvrability of wheelbarrows. A potting shed screens the veg beds from the house and provides a sanctuary from which the view can be enjoyed in peace and quiet.
Planting in beds framing the lawns, pond and stream provide Elizabeth with a wide variety of flowering and evergreen shrubs, perennials and small trees to tend throughout the year.
A large lawn at the top of the garden leading onto a hardwood deck creates the space they need for energetic grandchildren as well as room for entertaining and additional storage.
“We are delighted with the garden that George has created for us – it gives us everything we asked for and more,” Roger and Elizabeth explained. “He understood exactly what we wanted, even when we weren’t sure ourselves!”
