This town garden achieves year-round interest through a blend of styles, where an immersive wave of summer blooms softens a framework of clipped evergreens.
Set within a beautiful private estate, this converted cow barn residence occupies an elevated site surrounded by gently sloping gardens.
The existing garden lacked cohesion and a strong sense of place. The brief was to create a connected series of practical seating areas using local materials, whilst introducing immersive perennial planting and inviting spaces to sit and enjoy the garden.
The main sloping lawn has been transformed into a richly planted border of airy, floriferous perennials and ornamental grasses, contrasted with clipped structural shrubs and strategically positioned multi-stem trees. The planting retains the openness of the site whilst framing and enhancing the views towards Cadbury Castle. Using the clients’ own collection of irregularly sized Hamstone slabs, a local stonemason created a gently elevated stepping-stone path that meanders through the sloping border. Steps and informal seating, crafted from found and discarded stone pieces salvaged from the site, provide a natural route through the planting and create a beautiful approach to the upper sun terrace. At the rear of
the house, a gravel garden benefits from all-day sunshine, restored high boundary walls and substantial retaining banks. This previously underused space has been given its own identity and a strong sense of place, with a central focal point visible from the open-plan, triple-height interior. A bespoke Corten steel water pool was designed and installed to provide a calming central focus, while also helping to soften and distract from occasional local traffic noise. Clipped topiary and old-fashioned climbing and rambling roses spill over the tall boundary wall, which once enclosed the original kitchen garden belonging to the main house.
At the front of the property, the removal of a large oil tank created an opportunity for a new level terrace. Surrounded by formal planting, the terrace provides a welcoming arrival space and reinforces the entrance to the house.
The resulting garden is a series of connected spaces, combining locally sourced materials, immersive planting and carefully considered focal points to create a cohesive landscape that feels established, personal and rooted in its setting.
