Design, build and maintenance across Bath and North Somerset
A garden is a ten-year conversation
We design and plant gardens meant to look better in their fifth year than their first. Drawn to the aspect and the soil you actually have, then maintained through the seasons rather than photographed once and abandoned.
With the brief, the budget and how long we were actually on site.
Before
After
Widcombe, Bath
A north-facing courtyard that had given up
The brief. A walled courtyard in permanent shade, previously gravel over membrane with three dead bay trees. The client wanted somewhere to eat outside and had been told repeatedly that nothing would grow.
What we did. Raised the levels with imported topsoil, planted a shade palette built around ferns, hydrangea and Japanese anemone, and laid a limestone terrace that reflects what light there is. The bay trees were replaced with multi-stem amelanchier.
Plot
8 × 6 m
On site
4 weeks
Budget
£18,400
Before
After
Oldfield Park
A long thin garden with nowhere to sit
The brief. The classic Victorian terrace plot — six metres wide, thirty long, and a lawn down the middle that made it feel like a corridor. Two children and a dog, so it had to survive being used.
What we did. Broke the length into three rooms with hornbeam hedging, moved the seating to the sunny middle third rather than the far end, and kept a proper lawn for the children. Deep borders on the west boundary do the heavy lifting.
Plot
6 × 30 m
On site
6 weeks
Budget
£31,000
Before
After
Combe Down
A sloping plot on thin limestone soil
The brief. A one-in-six slope over free-draining limestone that had defeated two previous planting schemes. The client had spent a great deal on plants that wanted moisture the site could never give them.
What we did. Terraced into three levels with dry-stone retaining, then planted almost entirely with Mediterranean and chalk-tolerant species. Nothing in the scheme needs irrigation after its first summer, which is the whole point.
Plot
400 m²
On site
9 weeks
Budget
£46,500
Planting
A palette that suits the site you have
Six plants we return to constantly, and the conditions each actually wants. The most expensive mistake in a garden is a plant in the wrong aspect.
Amelanchier
Structure
Amelanchier lamarckii
Aspect
Sun or part shade
Height
4–6 m
Interest
Three seasons
Japanese anemone
Late colour
Anemone × hybrida
Aspect
Part or full shade
Height
90 cm
Interest
Aug–Oct
Hart's tongue fern
Ground cover
Asplenium scolopendrium
Aspect
Full shade
Height
45 cm
Interest
Evergreen
Russian sage
Drought planting
Salvia yangii
Aspect
Full sun, sharp drainage
Height
1.2 m
Interest
Jul–Sep
Hornbeam
Hedging
Carpinus betulus
Aspect
Any but waterlogged
Height
To 4 m clipped
Interest
Winter marcescence
Box-leaved holly
Low hedging
Ilex crenata
Aspect
Sun or part shade
Height
40–60 cm
Interest
Evergreen
We plant for the soil and aspect rather than the photograph. If your site is dry shade we will tell you that hydrangeas will sulk, however much you like them, and suggest something that will not.
Through the year
What actually happens, and when
Garden maintenance is not one job repeated monthly. Each season has its own short list, and doing them at the wrong time is worse than not doing them.
Spring
Mar – May
Everything wants doing at once, and half of it can wait.
Mulch borders before growth closes them in
Cut back grasses and perennials left for winter
Divide congested clumps as they wake
First mow, blades set high
Summer
Jun – Aug
Mostly watering, deadheading and standing still looking at it.
Water new planting deeply, not often
Deadhead repeat-flowering roses
Trim formal hedges after nesting ends
Feed pots fortnightly
Autumn
Sep – Nov
The best planting season, and the one everybody misses.
Plant trees and shrubs into warm soil
Lift and divide herbaceous perennials
Plant spring bulbs, late in the window
Clear leaves off lawns, not off borders
Winter
Dec – Feb
Structural work, while you can see the bones.
Prune apples, pears and wisteria
Renovate overgrown deciduous shrubs
Repair fences, paths and edging
Leave seedheads standing for the birds
The single most common mistake we correct is pruning at the wrong moment — cutting spring shrubs in winter removes the flowers, and cutting hedges in late spring disturbs nesting birds, which is also an offence.
Maintenance
Looking after it afterwards
A planting scheme is a plan for ten years. It needs someone who knows what was planted and why.
Seasonal
Four visits a year
£840per year
Established gardens that mostly need the right job done at the right moment.
All plans include the same team each visit. Nobody arrives who has not seen your garden before, which matters enormously the first time somebody has to decide whether a plant is dying or dormant.
Clients
What people say a few years on
The only review that means anything is one written after the garden has had time to settle.
“Four years in and it looks like it has always been there, which I now understand was the entire point of the drawings we spent so long on.”
H
Helena Cross
Widcombe
“They told us not to buy the tree we had set our hearts on because the soil was wrong. That is when I decided to trust them.”
R
Ravi Chandra
Oldfield Park
“The same two people have looked after it since it went in. They know which plants are meant to look dead in March.”
S
Sue Pemberton
Combe Down
Questions
Before you get in touch
Mostly about time and money, which is reasonable.
A concept plan for a typical town garden is £1,200 to £2,400 depending on size and complexity, and includes a site survey, a scale drawing and a planting plan. That fee is deducted from the build cost if you go on to have us do the work.
Six to ten weeks for design and drawings, then the build. We book construction roughly three months ahead. If you want planting in the autumn window, which is the best one, start the conversation in early summer.
No. It is offered because a planting scheme is a ten-year plan and most schemes fail in year three from well-intentioned wrong pruning. Ninety-two percent of clients stay on one, but nobody is obliged to.
Usually, and often that is the better job. Mature structure is worth a great deal and takes decades to replace. We would rather keep a good hedge and rework around it than clear a site for the sake of a clean drawing.
Anything we supply and plant is replaced free in its first two years, provided the garden has been maintained — by us or by you following the plan. Plants die, and after two years it is usually the conditions rather than the plant.
The best planting window is autumn
Book a site visit now and there is time to design, draw and plant before the soil cools.
