The Brief

Our client from Blackwell asked us to design a section of her back garden. The garden layout had been well thought through, so we decided to stick with it. Unfortunately, the borders were entangled with bindweed and ground elder and overgrown shrubs and climbers.

Initially we set about renovating this garden, pruning back various trees and shrubs, removing other shrubs, digging out unnecessary perennials and thoroughly weeding through the borders several times. On bringing the garden back to ‘it’s bones’, we were able to determine our next steps and began to formulate ideas and draw up a design.

The client gave us a brief that consisted of being low maintenance, colourful and with some year-round interest. We selected a number of established Acer palmatums to provide some structure, tiering down to large shrubs such as Deutzia ‘Raspberry Sundae’, Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’, Viburnum plicatum, Nandina domestica among others. An understorey planting of Geraniums, Brunnera, Rodgersia, Pachysandra and Alchemilla will create a ground covering carpet, giving a pleasant aesthetic but also preventing weed growth.

In addition, we built a wooden pergola to provide a lovely seating area that will, in time, be enveloped in Wisteria and grapevines.