Following on from extensive building works, this sloping site needed a rethink. The garden needed to work hard for the busy, multigenerational family, to tempt the family outside and to provide spaces for people, wildlife and plants.

A terraced garden, with useable attractive flat spaces, each with their own distinctive character, with unifying elements (paving, plant palette etc) was created with a journey from the family space to the dining and entertaining terrace, with structural planting to ensure the view from the window looks good year-round. An inviting space, to tempt the client into the garden. Steps down to a pathway through contemporary, drought tolerant planting, leading to the existing sundowner deck (now immersed in tall grasses and structural perennials designed to capture the evening light and draw out the evenings). 

The journey becomes increasingly less structured, with wildflowers, grasses through a mown path leading to a waterside contemplative space, for watching wildlife attracted to the water. This space is somewhat obscured from the rest of the garden and serves as a calm retreat.

Mere months after the completion of the wildlife pond, newts have been spotted, amongst the varied other wild creatures.