The client came to me thinking that a complete garden re-design would be necessary to tame the garden that had been neglected over a period of a few years. Whilst the planting and wildlife pond had become overgrown, the bones and overall character of the garden was still in good nick. We were able to quickly identify that there was still lots of wonderful elements to the garden. This meant that we could restore and rejuvenate the planting and wildlife pond and then softly overlay a design to create a path and small patio.

This approach is much more sensitive to a garden which has many years of lived experience and cherished memories. It is also much more sensitive to the physical landscape with a far lighter impact on the soil and biodiversity.

We thinned out and removed several existing trees and shrubs to let more light into the garden. We lifted and divided all the good plants to be re-used, weeded out the weeds and embellished with new plants.

A limestone stepping stone pathway was cut into the existing lawn to give dry access to the cacti house / greenhouse and wildlife pond. A paved edging strip was introduced to give design detail and reduce lawn maintenance.

The wildlife pond was re-lined, replanted and a new pump and filter fitted. The existing water and some of the pond sludge was saved in a large container onsite until it could be decanted back into the pond. We were rewarded with masses of frogspawn in early spring.

This has been a particular favourite project of mine working with an old family friend in a garden I spent time in as a boy.

This project was expertly built by Will Jefferson at Crafted Landscapes.