Putney
Our clients’ early 20th century detached house is on a corner site with two separate garden areas on two sides of the house, in addition to a generous front garden. Both the rear and side gardens were highly visible from inside the house but only one, the rear garden, was used at all.
The main rear garden is South-East facing and on a sloping site was originally landscaped for the family when the children were small with an oversize porcelain tiled lower terrace, a long tiled bench, steps up to a lawn, large painted arbour and trampoline. The side garden is North-West facing and apart from some existing trees, stepping stones, a large lawn and a narrow planting bed, was a virgin site and not used or enjoyed by family so our client wanted a fresh start throughout.
For the new rear garden design we worked with the existing sloping site to minimise waste and removal of spoil. We removed the lawn and replaced it with large planting beds with two sets of ramped gravel and limestone steps up to the higher level.
The lower terrace was reduced in size but is still large enough for games and sport. A smaller timber bench and built-in BBQ and Egg were added and English limestone paving mixed with stone stackers replace porcelain tiles. The upper area with a paved arbour and fireplace, gravel paths, bespoke timber daybed and relocated in-ground trampoline are accessed via planted and gravel ramped steps. There is generous planting with two large central beds and ground cover rills planted with thyme, Erigeron karviniskianus and Soleirolia soleirolii along gravel paths.
The side garden has been transformed and is now mainly gravel, shade tolerant planting, with limestone stepping stones leading through the space, providing a new sitting area and productive garden designed by us with input from their nine year old son. There is now a mix of Taxus and Fagus boundary hedging planted amongst the mature trees and the old lawn area now a large planted gravel seating terrace.
The front garden was tired and needed a new path and planting. We redesigned the front path using limestone paving and introduced two new multi-stem trees and softer ‘cloud’ planting to replace the existing Buxus hedging which was becoming diseased.
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Photography by Charlotte Rowe © Copyright
