Serpentine Path Garden

Winding Path from House to Office

Design and build constraints:

Large garden with overgrown planting in areas
Little seasonal interest beyond spring
Box hedges in poor condition
Dog and cat friendly planting required
Integrate new office / gym building into new garden

A large garden with the back half very overgrown made the rear deck in this garden inaccessible. Existing box hedges surrounding the planting by the house made the borders difficult to access for maintenance. They had also suffered the ravages of box tree caterpillars so were very unsightly to look at.

The design for the new garden had to accommodate a garden building which would act as an office and gym space. Due to extra height being required for the gym the decision was made to position the building more than two metres away from all boundaries so as not to require any planning permission.

A hard wearing, serpentine like path was created in Baksteen Crimson Clay Pavers leading a journey through the garden from the main patio to the garden office. These were chosen to complement the colour of the brickwork on the house. Combined with the paved areas which were built using London Stone’s Tumbled Mint Sandstone.

Three mature trees – a Prunus, Magnolia and Cornus were retained in the garden planting and offered areas to create pockets of shade loving planting in amongst the open areas of border.

Plants such as Heptacodium, Mahonia and Symphotrichum were used to extend the season of interest through autumn and into winter.

Three mature trees - a Prunus, Magnolia and Cornus were retained to create pockets of shade loving planting in amongst the open border.