Hertfordshire Arts & Crafts home

Client brief

To re-design a southwest facing back garden to create a space that is easier and more enjoyable to maintain.

The most important role of the new garden design was to make the conservatory to feel visually part of the house. Brick risers and clay paver details in the new design help achieve this, as does the new white garden furniture. The clients wanted to keep the concrete path down the vegetable garden because it was practical for their needs. It has been re-surfaced with a resin-bound aggregate.

The materials and garden’s style reflect the building’s arts and crafts heritage. Circles help widen a long garden and, as the plantings mature, will create garden rooms assisted by doorway-like arbors. To anchor and to visually widen the long path, and to encourage dawdling, metal arbors were designed. These will eventually be covered in a cascade of roses and clematis. On a practical note new lawn edging halves the amount of time now spent maintaining the lawn.