Garden Design

Riverside Family Garden Case Study

The owners had designed and built the house themselves, 10 years prior to the back garden being designed.

The garden had a quite a serene feel to it, backing onto a river, with a magnificent Taxodium distichum - swamp Cypress to one side, some Gunnera manicata along the riverside, weeping willow in the distance, a small deck for their boat, and a summerhouse next to it.

There was a large deck directly behind the house, with steps leading down to the garden, and given its height felt quite dominant in the space. Apart from a few other trees and shrubs, the garden was otherwise all laid to lawn.

One of the issues that the owners faced was the high-water table, being next to the river meant that half of the lawn became flooded after any prolonged periods of rain.

They wanted to be able to walk around the garden all year and enjoy the summerhouse even in winter.

Another problem was that while they enjoyed the river views from their garden, a towpath on the far side meant that they felt they had little privacy.

The garden also needed to marry up the more rustic feel of the summerhouse by the river, with the straight lines of the house and decking.

Our solution was to create a slightly raised path around the garden, which moved from straight lines next to the house, to curving around the end of the garden.

This allowed for a good area of lawn to remain, whilst also framing the swamp cypress tree, and meant the whole garden could be accessed with dry feet year-round!

By introducing a decked bridge into the area that often became waterlogged, with a rain garden underneath it, all of the excess rainwater now pools underneath the bridge, turning into a ‘pond’ for short periods of time.

This area is filled with adaptable plants that can cope with both drought and some waterlogging.

Two new seating areas were created (next to the summerhouse and a second one with a firepit nearer the house) with beautiful sandstone cobbles, for a stylish yet rustic effect. This blended well with natural colour of the self-binding gravel used for the paths, chosen to be reminiscent of the towpath on the far bank.

Planting beds were designed into the areas around and between the paths and lawn, with new trees, shrubs, and tall grasses, carefully sited to give the owners more privacy, particularly in seating areas near the house, whilst at the same time retaining the lovely river views.

The aim of the planting plan was to create borders with a naturalistic, ‘new wave perennial’ feel, that will be fairly low maintenance once established.

This incorporated lots of perennials and ornamental grasses, into a mix of shrubs, some focal point Phormiums, and used lots of textural planting next to the river to blend in with the existing Gunnera manicata.

The result is an ever-changing backdrop of plants, which are resilient to both drought and damp, with plenty of colour, texture, and interest throughout the year.