My clients were a family with young children, but no where that was easy to use for their children to play. The existing garden had been broken up into 4 parts, a small patio wasn’t big enough for the family garden table. The lawn was broken up by a sunken area and a retaining wall, at the bottom third of the garden made the garden feel shorter than it was. There were a lot of mature shrubs which were becoming hard to maintain and encroaching over the lawn. An island bed made the garden feel smaller.

The family were looking for a larger open family garden where the children can play all day. Play equipment can be moved around the garden easily, the garden needed to be easier to maintain, be simple and stylish, whilst also being practical and functional with a new shed replacing the two older one. The existing patio was York stone, so we could re use that in the new garden. The house was built in the 1970’s and some thing funky and 70’s inspired was requested.

When designing the garden I didn’t want to lose too many mature shrubs, but a few were removed to allow flow and the beds were enlarged to allow perennial planting and colour. Initially we needed to remove the raised wall and fill in the large sunken area, to create a lovely even space for our Family garden. As the garden was rectangular I was keen avoid making it look narrow, so eventually decided to work with some diagonals. Creating a large patio for easy entertaining, borders zigzagging their way up the garden to a second smaller patio with a bespoke Pergola at the end of the garden for a quieter space with morning sun. As the budget did not extend to using York stone throughout, we used a buff sandstone for the new patio by the house, and cleaned the original York stone and used it for the smaller patio and stepping stones, the colours matched well and saved on budget.