This was a new build property on a humungous plot of largely undeveloped land. The contractors had, apparently, exhausted their budget before reaching the garden. The existing paving was of poor quality and deteriorating. The rest of the garden encircling the property was bereft of topsoil and was host to a myriad of weeds, it also had an unforgiving slope towards the rear of the plot from when the ground had been rudimentarily levelled.
Our initial brief was based around the primary need of creating a level and healthy lawn with the added structural requirement of heavy retainment in place of the existing slope. This quickly developed into a full-blown garden makeover.
With the customers and ourselves now faced with a huge blank canvas. The couple had invested a lot of time creating their perfect retirement home, our job was to help them discover what they wanted to include in their dream garden. The three main points of focus seemed to be; privacy from a large adjacent building; a space to entertain which also required privacy, this time from a footpath running alongside the garden; and finally, a play area for their grandchildren.
Solving the issue of privacy was achieved by the optimal placement of mature trees to create screening for the main patio area. The best placement for the entertainment area was in the corner of the expansive lawn. An existing stone wall framed one side and privacy from the adjacent footpath on the other side was provided by the installation of contemporary, horizontally slatted fencing. We broke away from the angular nature of the plot by using curved borders throughout. We then used three interlocking sandstone circles for the entertainment area, these followed the curvature of the border. Finally, we highlighted this entertainment corner using downlighting on the fencing and powerful spotlights on the large, existing trees behind.
One corner of the garden was filled with play bark, this area was to be devoted to the grandchildren with the customer planning to introduce playing apparatus later.
Nathanand The New Gardens Team were great to work with. Friendly competent, flexible and professional. As we had a full garden makeover, plans needed to change and be revised as we progressed. The end result was more than we hoped for. T. Denham