Contemporary Family Garden Design, Woodgates Lane, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, HU14 3JY

Raised Timber Deck With Contemporary Galvanised Steel Balustrade.

Recently Installed Cedar Cladding, White Rendered Walls And Stainless Steel Trim To Deck.

Deck Detail.

New Fencing And Sunken Trampoline.

Brick Retaining Wall And Granite Plank Terrace.

Extension Footings Being Set-out And Installed.

Earlier Proposal For Rear Garden (Not Adopted).

Hardwood Step Installation And Driveway Improvements Being Undertaken.

To utilise my spare time over the Christmas break, I have taken the opportunity to post up some large projects from a few years back and some smaller (general landscaping) jobs I have designed this year.

Please keep scrolling down the posts and press the "older" button if necessary to see the interesting large gardens that I have designed/help construct during 2014.

I started working on the above project in 2005 whilst I was still undertaking "hands-on" landscaping as a self-employed contractor. My drawings were a bit more basic at the time so I have chosen not post them up.

This project, on-and-off, kept me occupied for about four years including help Project Manage the construction of a large extension to the rear of the property and major internal re-modelling to make the house open-plan.

My first task was to design and help construct a large raised deck over an existing crumbling raised patio area. My design included the fitting of contemporary galvanised mesh balustrades around the deck with stainless steel trim to the perimeter.

I was then given the task to enlarge and improve the existing tarmac driveway which was to be edged in Marshall Tegula block paving and include two diagonal bands that focused the eye on the properties front door.

The existing concrete steps at the front door were built over with a hardwood deck which also incorporated lighting, a raised planter and was again edged in stainless steel.

The next major project was to hire a large JCB to up-root lots of self-seeding Sycamores that were getting quite large clearing the fence-lines for a future fence. Whilst the machine was on site it was used to excavate a large hole in the chalk underneath the site to house a sunken trampoline. Once the new 2 metre high feathered-edge timber fence was erected, the trampoline was installed in place and landscaped around.

After doing all this landscape work I was dropped the bombshell that the Client now wanted to greatly extend the property and completely re-model the interior so that it was mainly open-plan downstairs whilst cladding/rendering the exterior so that the boundary of old property and new extension was seamless! All of the proposed building work was obviously going to have an impact on the recently installed landscape features such as the driveway which was used for storage and mixing etc. but fortunately, I was asked (along with my Father) to help Project Manage the build and thus reduce any potential damage.

The next major landscape project as part of this process was creating a large paved terrace at the rear of the property. As you can see from the images above, there was a large grass covered chalk bank running the full length of the garden. This was excavated into and a brick retaining wall (designed by myself after rejecting the architect's for being only 600mm away from extension!) was built the full length.

After also setting out the extensions foundations, the area between the extension and the wall was paved by myself using granite "planks".

Surprisingly, after the upheaval of completing all the building and landscape works, the owners of the house put it up for sale and moved a year later.

Contemporary Garden Design, Kemp Road, Swanland, East Yorkshire, HU14 3LY

Proposed Property Entrance Features.

Birds Eye View Also Showing Breakfast Deck.

Ariel View Showing Full Extents Of The Site.

Recently Completed Water Feature And Planting.

Silver/Grey Granite Terrace.

Hard And Soft Landscaping Completed.

Existing Garden Prior To Building Works And Landscaping.

This large-sized contemporary family garden off Kemp Road in Swanland, East Yorkshire was designed during 2008.

Prior to commencing my design, the garden was mainly laid to lawn with an existing timber deck to the side (with views over the Humber), an existing concrete slab paved area on the front elevation of the house and a long tarmac driveway leading out to the road.

The Design Brief was as follows: The Client (who was a local builder) wanted to make a feature of the main entrance to the property and wanted a garden to entertain and relax in that was also "child-friendly".

The main design-feature was to be a large terrace constructed from granite paving and an arrangement of raised beds/a water feature around a central chimney breast (that was to be rendered a charcoal colour). Also, a low timber deck was to constructed as a (South facing) place to relax just outside the kitchen door. The property was still in the process of being renovated and the long-term goal was to put a Landscape Masterplan in place that could be adopted over time.

This design was completed and  handed over to the Clients during 2008. The landscape construction works took place later that year and the photographs of the completed garden were taken soon after when I returned to site and undertook the turfing and some planting for the Clients.

As the Client was a builder, and I had no involvement in Project Managing the scheme, he did slightly veer away from my design (i.e. missing out the "banding" in the paving and the front step "pergola".

Location: Swanland, East Yorkshire.

Client: Private.

Garden Designer: David Beasley.

Simple Garden Design Examples, East Yorkshire, 2014

Not all the Garden Design drawings I get asked to do are for large or complicated projects.

I produce a lot of 3D visuals for schemes where a little design input is required but the main emphasis is on producing an accurate "artist's impression" that can be easily interpreted/understood by all involved (customer/contractors/neighbours etc.) and quantified for pricing purposes.

The majority of the following images have been produced for Ashwood Services during 2014.

Some of the projects have been built on site whilst others are in the pipeline.

For many examples of gardens I have designed for larger (mainly executive) properties keep scrolling down the blog and click on the "older" button when at the bottom of the page.

This is a simple design I produced for a friend of mine. He has had a new extension built on the back of his property, he has an existing hardwood summer-house and his property backs on to the fields of Anlaby Common. He plans to purchase a wood-burning stove for outside use and wanted me to show this on a new patio with an overhead covered timber/poly-carbonate sheet pergola. I also suggested that he constructed a new rear timber boundary fence with "windows" cut out to retain the attractive views over the fields.

The rectangular object in the foreground of this image is a garden office/"man-cave". It was delivered and erected in 2013 and the customer wanted a new footpath to link up to one at the side of the property to provide all-year-round access. An existing timber deck adjacent the house was also to be replaced with a new, larger deck (with a glazed balustrade).

The above image is for a project where an existing shared-drive consisting of cracked concrete slabs was to be replaced with a block-paved driveway with informal gravel parking to the sides.

This was another driveway project where concrete slabs were to be replaced with block paving. The drive previously only had one entrance/exit so the plan was to create a "horse-shoe" shaped area with a second opening.

The raised planting beds and lower flight of steps in this project were existing, as was the upper/lower lawn areas. The plan was to re-instate the existing sleepers and install another flight of steps up a steep bank (mid-way up the garden) and stain them all black. The upper and lower lawns were to be re-turfed, the beds extensively planted up and a contemporary granite patio terrace created adjacent to the property.

Country House Courtyard Garden, Walkington, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17

Courtyard Landscape MasterPlan.

Proposed View Looking Towards Lounge.

View towards lounge post garden construction.

View towards lounge prior to garden construction.

 Proposed main dining terrace.

Proposed view looking towards pool room.

View towards pool room post garden construction.

View towards pool room prior to garden construction.

Ariel View Of Completed Courtyard Landscaping.

This large-sized country house courtyard garden in Walkington near Beverley, East Yorkshire was designed during the Summer of 2010.

Prior to commencing my design, the garden was mainly laid to travertine limestone paving with sections of artificial lawn edged by real buxus hedging that was suffering from "box blight".

The Design Brief was as follows: A busy professional couple wanted a very low-maintenance garden to entertain and relax in that was also "child-friendly".

The main design-feature was to be a series of large terraces of Indian Sandstone paving linked by "stepping stones" over a large artificial lawn (the Client owned a company specialising in artificial golf greens". The main terrace was to be for dining whilst one near the swimming pool room was to house a children's "Wendy House" and act as a breakfast terrace. A relaxing "outdoor lounge" area was to be housed on a high quality raised hardwood deck and was to feature comfy rattan seating and a raised fire-pit/table top. The properties lounge was to be accessed via. a flight of steps constructed from the same hardwood and featured a bespoke tiered water cascade at the edges which was to be constructed from lead sheet. The most unusual aspect of this design is that the Client requested that the proposed box-hedging, topiary and lawn be constructed from synthetic materials due to their previous experiences and for low maintenance purposes.

The property is down a rural lane on the outskirts of Walkington in East Yorkshire.

This design was completed and  handed over to the Clients and their builders in the summer of 2010. The landscape construction works took place later that summer and the photographs of the completed garden were taken during 2013.

Location: Walkington, East Yorkshire.

Client: Private.

Garden Designer: David Beasley.

Flemingate Mews Garden, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17

Landscape Design Masterplan.

Proposed Raised Deck And Granite Patio.

Existing Raised "Planter".

Proposed Raised Planters And Barbecue.

Existing Garden.

This small-sized courtyard garden in the new Flemingate Development in Beverley, East Yorkshire was designed during the Late Summer of 2014.

Upon my initial visit, the garden was mainly laid to plum slate mulch with a small paved patio and a pink painted raised planter along the side of the house. The site boundaries were constructed of treated "feather-edge" board fencing with steel mesh industrial fencing behind.

The Design Brief was as follows: A busy young professional couple wanted a garden to "chill out" in and cook.

The main design challenge in the garden was the screening-off the views of a large industrial building to the rear and a parked up recreational vehicle on land to the side of the garden. This was to be achieved by erecting slatted privacy trellis on top of the existing fence, planting "pleached" Hornbeam screening trees in new raised timber planters and by planting vigorous climbing plants such as "mile-a-minute" that will quickly soften the trellis and erase the un-wanted view.

All timber and masonary walls were to be painted black to take attention from the industrial buildings, improve the "gaudy" colour-scheme and provide a fantastic back-drop for future planting.

At ground-level, a large blue/black granite patio is to be constructed which is large enough to accommodate a four-seater rattan "cube" dining set.

The Client is a keen cook and so a permanent engineering brick barbecue is to be constructed in the garden with adjacent raised herb-beds constructed from new "railway sleeper" style chunky timber.

The existing raised planter is to be made more useful by firstly creating an elevated seating deck made from Siberian Larch  which leads to an 4' x 9' pent roofed storage shed. Behind this, a section of retaining wall is to be removed to create a "well" for storing wheelie bins.

This design has just recently been completed and has been handed over to the Clients and it is envisioned that implementation of the garden design landscaping will be "phased" starting on-site sometime in 2014.

Location: Flemingate Development, Beverley, East Yorkshire, UK

Client: Private.

Garden Designer: David Beasley.

Arts And Crafts Garden Design, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 8RQ

Landscape Design Masterplan.

Proposed Terraces In Rear Garden.

Existing Terraces.

Proposed Water Feature At Junction Of Terraces.

Proposed View From Hot-tub Terrace.

Proposed View From Lounge.

Existing View From Lounge.

Proposed "Wildflower" Edges To Lawn.

Existing Lawn.

Proposed Landscape Improvements To Front Garden.

Existing Front Garden.

Architect's Land Survey Plan.

Client's Sketch From Brief.

This large-sized executive house garden near Leatherhead, Surrey was designed during the Summer of 2014.

I received the initial inquiry via. email after the Client found me on Google searching for "Garden Design Using SketchUp".

Due to the logistics of visiting a garden in the countryside near London, it was decided that I would not visit the site but rely on the Client's own photographs/sketches and architect's plans/topography drawings which were done for a proposed extension featuring a "Garden Room".

Prior to commencing my design, the rear garden was mainly laid to lawn with various existing terraces at various levels and included several timber outbuildings. To the front of the property was an existing concrete block paved driveway with a raised planter. The site boundaries were a mixture of beech hedge, brick walls and modern timber fencing.

The Design Brief was as follows: A busy (near retirement age) professional couple wanted a garden to entertain and relax in and they were not keen gardeners but wanted an attractively planted garden that merged in to the surrounding "borrowed landscape" of The Surrey Hills. The garden was to look "designed" but not be "designer".

The main design-feature at the rear was to be a series of large raised terraces of Indian Sandstone paving linked by wide footpaths and ramps in the same material. The main terrace was to be for dining whilst one was to house a future hot-tub and the other acted as a breakfast terrace. In keeping with Edwardian Art's And Crafts style gardens (the property is in this style), the garden was to be designed as a series of "outdoor rooms" divided by high hedges, these also helped give privacy and helped screen off unwanted view's.The Clients also requested several water-features to be incorporated in to the design as well as a place to house a shed for garden storage. The main design challenge in the rear garden was the existing sloping topography which was to be leveled-off in to plateaus by building low brick retaining walls to match the property.

The property is down a quite suburban road of large executive style properties near Leatherhead, Surrey and the front garden features an existing concrete block paved driveway that needs to be extended to cater for at least one more vehicle and the general landscaping upgrading to allow for the future proposed side extension to the property.

This design has just recently been completed and has been handed over to the Clients and their builders. The building re-modeling works are still to commence on site and It is envisioned that implementation of the garden design landscaping will be "phased" starting on-site sometime in 2015.

Location: Leatherhead, Surrey.

Client: Private.

Garden Designer: David Beasley.

East Yorkshire Garden Design Photos

I took the opportunity to re-visit several gardens I have designed and help build.

I was very pleased to see that they had been expertly maintained and that the planting was flourishing!

Please look at earlier blog posts on this website to see these gardens in their infancy.

The above garden was part "Swanland Open Gardens" 2014.