This medium-sized family garden in Swanland, East Yorkshire was designed and constructed during the Summer of 2012 and the follow up (wet) photographs were taken Autumn 2013.
Upon my initial visit, the garden was mainly laid to lawn with a token strip of paving that the original developer had installed near the property. Also, several large Scots Pines had been felled with permission from the local authority.
The Design Brief was fairly straight-forward. A young married couple with two children wanted a garden to entertain friends (the Client was a self-employed butcher who liked to barbecue!), suit the children's needs and look good all-year-round.
The main design-feature was to be a large terrace. This patio was constructed from grey coloured Indian Sandstone (to harmonize with the property's buff brick colour) and included bands of blue engineering brick to visually break the area up.
The terrace was large enough to accommodate a large dining table whilst allowing people to stand/circulate. Over the main bulk of the patio, a black stained, timber pergola was constructed to provide vertical interest, shade and a structure for climbing plants to grow over. The pergola was fixed to the terrace via. galvanised steel "shoes" which will help prevent the structure from rotting and adds an interesting design detail.
To solve the family's garden storage problems, a bespoke lean-to timber shed was constructed adjacent the existing garage. This was clad in black-stained "weather-board" to seamlessly blend in with the similarly clad garage.
Horticulturally, the existing lawn was removed and replaced with new turf (edged in timber for ease of maintenance). Also, wide planting borders were created at the sides of the garden and the existing rear planted area was improved. The new planting was a mixture of ever-green shrubs, plants with Autumnal/Winter interest and "see-through", wiry herbaceous perennials to provide all-year-round interest. Several white-stemmed Birch Trees were also planted to add height. These also will stand out fantastically against the back-drop of the newly, black-painted fences and matched the trees in neighboring gardens. To reduce the need for weeding and preserve soil moisture, all planted areas were covered in weed-supressing membrane and mulched with either wood bark or gravel.
The Garden Design work for this scheme took around 2 weeks from start-to-finish. The Garden Construction work for this scheme took around 3.5 weeks to complete (including planting) and cost circa. £10K in total (Summer 2012 prices).
Location: Swanland, East Yorkshire, UK.
Client: Private.
Garden Designer: David Beasley.
Landscape Contractor: Ashwood Services https://www.facebook.com/AshwoodServices?fref=ts
Planting: David Beasley
