Sundowner Space, Pond and Plants, L18

Scope: Re-organisation of garden, new patio area with oak pergola for evening sun. Tree removal, new planting and pond.

Price Bracket: ££

  • Pergola with new paving and existing raised beds
  • Custom oak pergola and planting
  • Pond in former raised bed
  • Existing terrace
  • Secret garden
  • Limestone paving with sandstone clay paver detail
  • Planting Plan by Season
  • Planting in progress
  • Planting underway
  • A partially assembled garden pond with a stone border, black liner, and small bricks inside, situated on a concrete patio. In the background are potted plants, a blue bucket, gardening supplies, and a wooden fence.
  • Concept Design
  • Setting out
  • Aerial Shot Before
  • Aerial Shot During
  • Aerial Shot After

  • The clients’ existing terrace works well in the day, but loses the sun early evening. The clients wanted a lounge space that they could use to catch the last of the sun, somewhere to relax with family and friends over a glass of wine. We designed a flexible space that could comfortably accommodate different seating configurations. The angle was canted to by 30 deg to open up the views and face the sunset. Paving was sourced to tie in with the existing terrace. A substantial oak pergola was installed using ground screws which improve longevity and allow planting right up to the posts.

  • The planting was predominantly dense evergreens that had the effect of closing in the space and not leaving much space for anything else. Through selective removal of some and editing of others, the garden now feels much lighter and inviting. New planting introduces a mix of perennials and evergreens to bring seasonal variation.

  • The clients wanted a pond, however didn’t want to lose lawn space. We converted a raised flower bed into a pond using a custom made box welded liner to fit the hole exactly. This is visible from inside the house as well as outside so much more impactful.

  • The garden lacked definition so we designed and installed a complementary paver edging to define the edges of the lawn and to link the existing terrace with the new sundowner space. This also serves as a mower edge, making maintenance simpler.

Objectives

Challenges

  • This garden had many overgreen shrubs, which made it difficult to appreciate them as they were planted too close. Through selective removal and retaining the most valuable, we were able to retain a sense of maturity and save the client money whilst still reducing the bulk.

  • The garden benefits from access to a shared “secret” garden behind, unfortunately this was right where we wanted to site the new patio. We moved the gate, changed the fencing and path behind to put this access point in a more sensible position.

  • The oak pergola is a beautiful structure however it does contain tannins and these can leach out of the timber. We had anticipated this and was one of the reasons that we placed the posts onto ground screws in the planting bed (not onto the patio) as it allows any leeching to enter the soil. However the beams did leech and required cleaning. We quickly identified the issue, cleaned then covered the paving and treated the timber to reduce the risk of future staining. Once we were comfortable that no more leeching would occur, we cleaned the paving again and sealed as a “belt and braces” approach.

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