Shady conifers and the starting point
I was approached by a customer wanting to redevelop her small south-east facing back garden to make it lighter, attract wildlife and have somewhere peaceful to sit and relax. When I visited it became apparent that some large conifers at the back of the garden were quite overgrown and were blocking out a great deal of daylight and shortening the garden by a couple of metres. The remainder of the garden comprised of lawn and a patio which was outside the back entrance to the house. With the garden measuring just 12.3m x 6.2m it was important to make the most of every centimetre so the conifers had to go!
Let there be light!
I put the customer in touch with a tree surgeon who came and removed the conifers and ground down the tree stumps as far as possible. When these were removed it was striking how much extra space there seemed at the bottom of the garden. Sadly the old fence had suffered so had to be replaced prior to work on the garden starting but this then gave us a clear space to work with. The ground underneath where the conifers had been was dry and poor but this was an ideal space to lay a new additional patio to create a seating area to catch the mid and late afternoon sun.
The design
The customer brief for this garden was quite simple. She wanted an additional patio at the bottom of the garden with a summer house and space for seating. She also wanted a pond and some wildlife friendly but easily maintained planting, some wildflowers and also somewhere to grow vegetables. Not too much to ask!
So the new Concept Plan was drawn up to include all the features that the customer wanted. The lawn was retained but I decided to separate the patio from the lawn by planting a low hedge of Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ to provide an easily maintained evergreen border to separate the areas. The entrance to the lawn area would be through a lovely decorative archway and some randomly laid steppers would then lead past a patch of wild flowers surrounding a newly installed wildlife pond. A new patio was put into the design as was the summer house. Large raised wooden planters were used to house a beautiful mix of evergreen and deciduous perennial plants which would attract wildlife to the garden. Another large wooden raised bed would be used to grow vegetables. Finally a curved border dug out of the lawn on the right hand side to house some gorgeous shade loving plants to spice up the fence.
The work begins
The hard landscaping work for this project was not extensive. The new patio was laid by a local landscaper and we did the rest! A preformed pond liner was purchased and set carefully into a prepared hole in the ground on a base of sand. A curved stepping stone pathway was set into the lawn and a long shady border prepared for planting. Bespoke wooden planters were commissioned to house some of the planting and also to allow the customer to grow her own vegetables. A summer house was also ordered and assembled by a local tradesman and a beautiful arch erected at the start of the path.
The planting
Planting was carefully chosen to suit the aspect and positioning of the garden and also the customer’s wish to attract wildlife. The long border was planted with shade tolerant perennials such as Skimmia japonica, Fatsia japonica, Digitalis, Aquilegias, Hostas and Anemones. The raised beds contained colourful sun-loving perennials which would attract insects and birds into the garden. Specimens include Lupinus, Rudbeckia, Nepeta, Echinecea and Lavandula angustifolia as well as creeping Phlox to spread in and amongst the planting. A row of Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ was planted to form a low boundary between the patio and lawn. A piece of ground adjacent to the pond was prepared and a wildflower mat planted. This will hopefully mature and self-seed year on year to provide a beautiful natural array of wild flowers which will be buzzing with life all summer.
A Wildlife Pond
When set in place, the pond liner was filled and edged with a variety of different sized and shaped natural stones. Some aquatic plants were planted and a solar fountain completed the installation. The pond has a slope which can assist creatures to get in and out of the water but it is just as easy to add a large stone or something similar towards the edge of the pond as a safety step.
A completed garden
Here is a picture of the completed garden.
