Spring 2009

Blog updates have been few & far between this Spring – a side effect of the practice being extremely busy despite the economic climate.    We’ve picked up several new projects (many by reccomendation) and some existing clients have returned for additional phases of work, so there has been little time to actually enjoy the glorious weather.

We’ve completed a front and back garden project in Sandhurst, a family garden near Hook and a sloping front and back garden in Farnborough as well starting the planting of a 5 acre site in Rowledge.  There’s no doubt that the economic climate is affecting the scope of some of the projects – one scheme had most of the planting budget removed when the client’s company became a victim of the recession, and it’s more important than ever to look for the optimum balance of design content versus budget.

New projects include a charming small walled garden in Eton which is detached from the house, a small modern wildlife garden in Rotherwick, a shady garden in a conservation area near Woking and a steeply sloping back garden in Godalming (with extremely difficult access as well).    Many of these are gardens where the owners have just ‘given up’ because of what they perceived as the problems, but through careful design each of these can be a beautiful, functional garden that fulfils the clients diverse needs.

November Update

It’s been a while since we’ve done a recap of some of our current projects, so here goes!

In Farnborough we’re working with a client who is undertaking extensive modernisation and redevelopment of their home including the re-design of both front and back gardens. The back garden is a reasonable size, around 20m square, but throws up many of the issues of a sloping site as it rises by around 2m from the back door to the highest point (approximately East to West), and also falls by about 1m from one side to the other (North to South). The client was keen to include a hot-tub within the scheme, as well as a cooking/entertaining area for adults and a decent level-ish lawn space for children to play on. A simplified visualisation of our proposed scheme is shown below – planting will be taking place in mid November so we hope to be able to add some photos of the finished garden soon.

Sloping site in Farnborough with space for cooking, entertainment and play

At the same site we’re now moving forward with the front garden scheme – this is obviously going to be subject to the new planning regulations on driveways so we’ll be using a soakaway to deal with any surface runoff from the scheme.

In Runfold we’re working on a scheme for a property with around 2 acres of gardens. The client is adding 3 separate extensions to the property including a new kitchen, lounge and swimming pool. With 2 acres of garden there’s obviously plenty of scope to meet all of the family’s diverse requirements so we’re including a new tennis court, a large grass area for the children to play on, a small fruit garden, a sun-trap terrace just outside the pool, a more formal ‘adult’ garden and new garages with improved space for parking and turning. Thus far we’ve presented our initial proposal to the client and are preparing to move ahead with the more detailed design for the first tranche of construction work.

In Camberley we’re working with a client who had just had a new driveway installed, but the driveway contractors had no idea what to do with the remainder of the front garden. We’ve developed a proposal to add structure and interest to the front garden using a little hard landscaping enhanced with year-round interest from the low maintenance planting scheme. We’re currently scheduling the construction for the hard landscaping and the client is keen for this project to be complete by the end of the year.

In Rowledge the hard landscaping has been completed at the 5 acre site we’ve been working on for the last 18 months or so. The planting plans have been presented and approved but planting has been delayed to spring 2009 by a series of other events which have in turn meant that the deer fencing isn’t yet complete.

In Hook we’re working on a small family garden of around 200 square metres. The project has been put out to tender and the contractors have just returned their prices so we’re expecting the client to make an instruction shortly. This project should be constructed in early 2009.

In Frimley we’ve been instructed by a client who is about to purchase some additional land from their neighbour, adding a new strip of garden to the side of their existing plot. The client is also about to start construction of a new extension to the house, so the garden will need to be comprehensively revised to fit the new layout of the site.

As well as all of the above design work we’ve also been quite busy with the teaching side of the business, helping other designers get to grips with the CAD packages Vectorworks and SketchUp. These are professional tools that can provide massive productivity gains to the designer, especially on large or complex projects.

We’re now looking to the first quarter of 2009 for further commissions so it’s worth making an enquiry sooner rather than later to see how we can help with your project.

SUDS on your driveway

1st October 2008 sees the introduction of new legislation for the construction of domestic driveways. The new laws mean that planning permission will be required for any driveway (technically any area over 5 square metres) where rainwater is allowed to drain onto roads or pavements rather than being managed within the confines of the garden. This is, in effect, an extension of the Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) rules that have affected commercial developments for some time.

The reason for SUDS and the new legislation is that the combined effect of thousands of square metres of new paving pouring water into an existing drainage system can be potentially catastrophic. Firstly, in heavy rain the extra volume of water can overwhelm the sewers and ditches that carry the water away, causing local flooding. Secondly the water that is washed off these paved surfaces can be contaminated with oil, organic matter and unsavoury chemicals – while an individual drive may not contribute too much the combined effect of many driveways can result in a harmful effect on the flora and fauna within the water courses that are used for drainage. Finally the water that is diverted into the drainage pipes does not contribute to the maintenance and replenishment of ground water levels, leading to further environmental damage.

So what can the average householder do about this?

Well, the first option is to use a permeable paving system such as permeable block pavers (not standard blocks), porous asphalt or gravel. Of course gravel is not a great surface to use on a sloping driveway and (unfortunately for designers) many porous paving systems are ‘aesthetically challenged’ but we hope that the new laws will encourage manufacturers to expand the range of products that are available. The second option is to take care of the water on site – perhaps by draining the driveway to a lawn of planting bed or adding a soakaway (if building regs permit this).

Perhaps these new regulations will even encourage people to think a little harder about the design of their front gardens rather than simply paving every square inch. After all it is possible to have a front garden that accommodates the family cars and still looks good!