May Roundup

The old ‘project diary’ page on our website served two purposes – part of it was comment on current issues in the world of garden design and part of it was a means of showing the range of work we’re currently involved in. So, keeping to that tradition here’s a review of some of our current projects.

In Rowledge near Farnham we’re working with a client who has a site of around 5 acres, with just under an acre of this designated as a garden. The client owns their own construction company so our approach to the project has been a little different to normal, with some new challenges arising as the project developed. The client is building a new house on the site, which also involves renovating a couple of old barns to include in the living accomodation. The site itself is quite steeply sloping with a stream running through the bottom of the valley and beautiful rural surroundings. Construction of the garden began at the beginning of 2008 but has been held up by the wet weather (the site is on heavy clay), but the main structure of the garden is now nearing completion. Pure Garden Design was recently instructed to proceed with the planting plan for the site, and we hope that some of the planting can be carried out before the summer.

At the opposite end of the scale we’re working on a small contemporary courtyard design for a new build house in Sussex (the case study is on our website). This has been an interesting project as the client was buying one of a pair of houses from a developer. The garden space is only 9m by 5m so the client was keen to get this right, and commissioned Pure Garden Design to develop a scheme. Access to the back garden would be limited once the house was complete so the client asked the property developer to undertake some of the initial construction work – the developer liked the design so much that he then commissioned us to produce a separate scheme for the other house. The clients suspended the work in the garden whilst they were settling in but now we are preparing the planting scheme with the intention that the garden is finished in time for the client’s birthday party this summer.

In Weybridge we are working on the 1/3 acre garden that surrounds a classic early 20th century tile hung house. The garden is taking cues from the era of Jekyll and Lutyens while providing for a modern 21st century lifestyle. The scheme balances formality and structure such as box hedges with flexible space for the family to dine and play, and of course low maintenance planting which adds impact without taking too much looking after. The first phase of this project is nearing completion, with just the bespoke railings and Hornbeam hedge to lift the property’s frontage awaiting completion in May.

We have two projects live in Farnborough – the first of these is a sloping site which is being transformed into a terraced garden with water linking the different levels. The sketch plan has been approved and we’re now well into the process of tendering and selecting a contractor. The second is a renovation of a tired 60’s detached house – the back garden is about 18 metres square and rises by about 2m along it’s length and 1m across the width. Our proposed scheme includes a generous terrace for entertaining (with integrated barbecue and hot tub) as well as a lawn area for the kids to play football etc. The sketch plan is in the final stages of development and construction is expected to follow reasonably quickly as the building works complete.

In Sandhurst we’re working on a small front and rear garden. The back garden slopes up away from the house and a DIY patio from the previous occupier makes no allowance for drainage. The front garden also slopes steeply making it difficult to maintain, and the steps and paths are crumbling and dangerous. The client’s children are also just starting to drive so there is a requirement for additional parking in front of the house. The initial sketch plan has been agreed but we are now working on options to reduce the overall cost of the scheme to enable the client to build both front and rear in a single project.

A new beginning

Since our website first went live we have been publishing a monthly project diary to give a flavour of the work we’re doing, our design approach and our views on current issues. While this seems to be a popular page with visitors to our site it always took a fair bit of work to maintain, and as we’re not wizards at web coding it was tricky to insert any extra features into the diary.

As a result we’ve taken the decision to move the diary to a blog format as this will enable easier updating (hopefully more frequent than before) as well as making it simple to add extra content such as images or maybe even short video fly-throughs of some of our gardens. Other bonuses will be a full archive of all of the articles and the ability for people to add their own comments.

The first article on budgets is a direct copy of the last diary entry from the old page – this had already generated some interesting comments from prospective clients so we decided that it would make a good starting point for the new blog. We also used to give updates on some of our current projects but these will now be done on an ad-hoc basis rather than formally listing them each month.

How much???

Money – in Cabaret they said it makes the world go round, but Pink Floyd reckoned it was the root of all evil.  Either way, it’s a subject that always comes up when we’re discussing gardens with clients.  One thing that we always discuss is the likely cost of the project – and how this compares to the client’s thoughts on their budget.  This is one reason why our case studies specifically include the project’s budget to give some idea of the likely cost before they get in touch with us.  It’s difficult to come up with a precise figure for the garden’s cost at the initial consultation but we can at least make sure that the designer and client are both in the same ballpark.

Very few clients have unlimited funds for their garden so as designers we have to be realistic and work with an eye on the client’s budget.   This has a couple of effects on the design process.  For example, during the initial design of the sketch plan a lower than optimal budget will mean that hard landscaping such as paved areas, retaining walls and steps may be limited and of course there is less scope for things like water features, lighting and bespoke structures.  Once the sketch plan is agreed there are still areas where the budget can be manipulated such as specifying treated softwood rather than a more desirable timber such as cedar or oak, or selecting a different paving material.  We can even split the project into discrete phases for construction over several years – in such cases we recommend that we finalise a ‘master plan’ for the site in advance to ensure that the finished project works as a unified scheme rather than an assembly of disparate elements.

The outcome of this is that we will always work with our clients to achieve the optimum balance of design content versus project budget.  Obviously we can’t work miracles and there will always be a ‘rock bottom’ cost for any given garden, but we’re always happy to discuss options.