Design and build constraints:
- Large garden
- Garden contains Honey Fungus
- Existing planting only flowered in spring
- Garden revealed all at once
- Level change running across width of garden
A third of an acre garden that had barely changed from when the owners moved in 30 years ago and sadly, due to Honey Fungus, had lost a number of trees over the years with others also in poor health.
As with so many of our client’s gardens, the existing planting that was in the garden didn’t offer much interest beyond spring. My clients were looking for an opportunity to garden and make better use of their plot. They were looking to have an area for their grandchildren to play in and were interested in adding a child-friendly water feature.
The topography of the site provided a gentle drop in level running across the width of the garden. This enabled an obvious location to site a water rill with the upper level providing a viewpoint to position a bench. Carefully positioned new borders were then placed to offer some division to the garden, whilst still allowing a connection of the individual spaces.
In order to span the seasons with the planting we positioned a border half-way down the garden. The planting scheme here whilst looking good all year round, was designed specifically with winter in mind and was sited to be viewed from the kitchen window.
A group of four
Stewartia pseudocamellia trees were planted to act as structural features surrounding the water rill and would offer interest from buds, flowers, bark and foliage, whilst also being Honey Fungus resistant.