Featured Project

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Arriving at this location we discovered a back garden area positioned around 3m below the house (on a southern slope in Hampstead). Access to the garden was via two flights of steps from an outdoor terrace.

A brief was developed with the client to create an interesting visual treat from the terrace looking down on the garden below. After a series of possibilities were discussed, it was decided to achieve this through the creation of a swirling shaped lawn derived from the interchange between grass and pebbles.

Once the shapes had been drawn up careful research was required to find the right size (to be in scale with the overall design) and colours (to exaggerate the swirls) for the pebbles. When this was found the garden works commenced under the skilled touch of our Award Winning Landscape Team.

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The first tasks were to dig up the tired lawn, remove the cluttered rockery and old railway sleepers. New curved retaining walls were constructed to be integral part of the design and minimize the effect of the slope. In the centre of the garden a spiral of flat pebbles was laid in a continuous movement in order to draw the eye towards the focal point in the middle.

Three different colours were used, grey dispersing into beige then into white to complete the last twirl and finish this flowing garden design. Over ten thousand smooth stones were carefully placed by hand to form an optical and tactile treat which can be appreciated both from close and up above.

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Most of the mature planting was kept, apart from where it had become tired and leggy. Colourful and contrasting ground covers for example in leaf texture and shape were planted in interlocking groups to enhance the feeling of movement in the main design of the garden. This successful design and build project was made possible by an innovative use of curves which were carefully constructed - with each pebble been carefully selected to match its neighbour, by our Award Winning Landscape Team.

The client was amazed that we managed to create this ‘’wonderful garden’’ especially seeing the care we took to carry all the waste and materials through her house and up and down flights of stairs.