Suffolk Farmhouse - Family/airbnb garden/Zen garden

The brief was to create several separate areas in the garden, allowing privacy for the family and creating a separate garden for the airbnb part of the house. The main family garden needed a play area for children, year round interest.

The new design split the garden using yew and beech hedging, wooden arches on entry/exit and trellis for privacy. The children's play area was lined with geotextile membrane and a thick layer of bark and enclosed with the new hedges. This was sited away from the house/main ornamental areas of the garden. A new yew lined border was created around the front of the house allowing planting and a new graveled entertaining area directly in front of the kitchen window (to allow food and drink to the passed and to provide a view). A new curved clay paver path to the back exit was designed to be both practical and aesthetically pleasing.

The planting plan for the project was low maintenance modern cottage garden with some new trees shrubs/climbers and a relaxing colour pallet of pinks, purples and blue with spots of hotter colours later in the year.

In 2024 I returned to start work on a new Zen garden which is surrounded by a moat and separate from the rest of the garden. Currently at concept stage, some of key plants (semi-mature Prunus Shogetsu, Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood, Pinus mugo 'Winter Gold' and the black bamboo Fargesia 'Black Pearl') have already been installed to give them an extra season of growing before the main garden design is completed next year.