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Sunday 21 June 2015

Contemporary Terrace And Driveway For Victorian Villa, Humber Road, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, HU14 3DW

Landscape Masterplan For Rear Terrace.

3D Visual Of Rear Terrace.
Image Of Existing Rear Garden.
Landscape Masterplan For Driveway.
Image Of Existing Driveway.

This large detached Victorian villa in North Ferriby has recently had a large, white rendered extension built at it's rear with several sets of bi-fold doors. The front of the property is also to be externally insulated/rendered to match the rear and the existing garage is due to be demolished and re-built to match the property.

The implementation of these extensive building works have damaged the existing garden surfaces and, on a positive note, opened up opportunities for the the rear garden/front driveway to be improved to suit the new house internal layout and the family's modern lifestyle.

Upon my suggestion, the new garage is probably going to be re-built in the same position but slightly rotated on it's axis so that the garage runs parallel to the property.

The existing gravel surfaced driveway is to be removed and replaced with a grey coloured concrete block paved drive to compliment the white rendered property. Several bands of a rougher surfaced, darker block paver are to be installed to visually break up the large expanse of paving and add interest. New timber garden gates are to be installed between the new garage and the house.

To the rear, the bands of darker paving form a larger body of paving and meet a large terrace of blue/black granite paving which runs around the perimeter of the house.

Beyond the main granite terrace, the central portion of the garden is to be raised up by approximately 18 inches behind new retaining walls and turfed. This new turfed area will flow in to the existing large lawn to the rear of the garden.

The new retaining walls will be constructed from red engineering bricks to match the base of the building and the new steps and wall coping will be paved with a buff coloured sandstone to match the parapet coping detail on the new extension.

This project is expected to be constructed in 2016 and is currently being priced by a local landscape contractor.


Contemporary Front Garden, Holtby Gardens, Dunswell Lane, Cottingham, East Yorkshire, HU16 4JX

 A View Of The Recently Completed Garden Looking From The Front Door.
A View Of The Recently Completed Front Garden Looking From The Road
The Concept Design For The Front Garden / Drive.
The Existing Garden Prior To It's Transformation.

This small front garden project was initiated by Ashwood Services who had a request from a prospective customer to transform a boring turfed front lawn in to an low-maintenance, all-year-round-interest, focal point that gave the property more "kerb appeal".

The Client owned a high-end kitchen design/manufacturing company and had recently down-sized to this smaller house and was struggling to park two cars on the existing tarmac driveway and still be able to access them/easily pass by without standing on the grass.

The plan was therefore to, in effect, widen the driveway by providing "stepping stones" that the couple could stand on in all-weathers. These were laid in a grid pattern at the Client's request as they had seen similar front gardens done in Australia when visiting relatives and liked the look.

The couple's rear garden had already been landscaped in a contemporary manner by a builder (who built them a modern extension with bi-fold doors) and they had planted this up themselves using "architectural plants" such as box hedging, bamboos and palms etc. The initial idea was to replicate this look frontways but the Client changed their mind slightly in favour of less exotic looking plants but ones still with interesting forms etc.

Raised timber planters were constructed using new, chunky, treated softwood "railway sleepers" and these were stained black using a specialist "barn paint".

A relatively cheap white gravel was used to mulch most of the area as this was the gravel used predominantly on the rest of the housing development and was easily sourced locally.

All planted areas were top-dressed with a layer of contrasting "river cobbles" and two bands of red colored block paving were installed to compliment two similar brick bands on the property and to help tie the two together.

Monday 8 June 2015

Large Traditional Rural Garden, Heads Lane, Hessle, East Yorkshire, HU13 0JU

Landscape Masterplan (Back).
 Rendered Image Of New Raised Brick Pools And Terraces.
Rendered Image Of New Raised Brick Pools And Terraces.
View Of Recently Constructed Extension.
 Existing Georgian Ornamental Pond To Be Retained.
Landscape Masterplan (Front And Annex Garden).
 View Of Dirt Track Leading To Property And Existing Barn (To Be Part Demolished).

 View Of Recently Renovated Property And Large Existing Cedar Tree (To Be Retained).
 View Of The Properties Extensive Garaging.

The above large rural property is located at the end of a long "dirt track" off Heads Lane, Hessle, East Yorkshire.

The property has been recently extended to the front and rear and the house sits in large grounds extending over 1 acre.

A large extension at the rear (built over a demolished swimming pool) now incorporates a large open-plan kitchen/day room and has been built with a flat roof to incorporate a large balcony above.

The site has been largely levelled by the building contractor and the only substantial feature that is to be retained is an original "Georgian" stone ornamental pool.

The Design Brief for this area was to cover as much of the area as possible with hard-landscaping (paving) to keep the maintenance down to a minimum, but to provide interest by having various different levels and changes in material.

A main criteria was that the terrace areas should be easily accessible from the property for all the family (which includes an elderly relative) and so steps and ramps were necessary on the surfaces which includes, grey Indian Sandstone paving, sawn Indian Sandstone paving, reclaimed granite setts and hardwood decking.

The inclusion of two large raised water-pools was also part of the Client's wishes as was shading structures for the property/terraces and a structure to house solar panels as the house is South facing in an open aspect.

The existing garden is well-stocked with plants and the Client expressed that as many plants as possible are to be up-lifted and re-positioned when construction occurs.

Attached to the main property there is a self-contained annex which has it's own courtyard garden. This garden features attractive brick walls and mature planting but is in need of a major tidy up/prune. A large number of existing concrete pavers retained on the site are to be laid in this garden to cover the area as much as possible and this is to be softened with gravel beds and planting to create a low-maintenance garden for the tenants.

To the front of the property is a large square-shaped courtyard/parking area bounded by the property, a large brick agricultural barn next door (which is to be part demolished as part of a large neighbouring housing development), the Clients extensive garaging and a farmer's field (which is also to be built on).

The Brief for the front was to come up with a scheme where the existing tarmac surfacing (which is currently under a layer of weedy growth/gravel) is top-dressed with new hard-wearing gravel with well-defined physical edging. Beyond the edging is to be newly prepared planting beds with the best of the existing shrubs retained. The scheme is also to include entrance ramp/access footpaths to the property which are to be constructed from similar materials to those in the back.

My design allows for a series of inter-connecting spirals based on the "Golden Rectangle" and the gravel to be laid is 22mm sized grey Nordic Granite and the edge blocks are to be granite effect concrete blocks.

This scheme is currently with a Landscape Contractor for pricing and all being well should commence being constructed late in 2015.