A mix of garden and ecological architypes with space to play
In Autumn 2023 we were commissioned following a recommendation to design a new garden for a new house on a pizza slice shaped plot for clients who were down-sizing and wanted to enjoy their garden in between holiday making. The client once a keen gardener wanted to get back into this without the obligation of regular maintenance. The number one briefing point was to include a Petanque Piste.
The site was waterlogged due to the post build compaction. See our blog on this unavoidable but not un rectifiable consequence of building. The soil was, in places, a heavy clay. The site is also notoriously windy on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment.
We interpreted our brief to mask the triangular shape of the plot, provide a garden to be gardened without feeling a chore and one that picked up on the client travels that you could play Petanque in.
We started by designing Bold and bold and strong shapes so these became dominant to the overall plot shape. We then broke the area into various ecological or garden zones – woodland, a dry garden, an open flower garden, a wild flower meadow, a winter garden, a French Petanque garden, being careful that these areas complimented each other. Each area would form the visual backdrop to its neighbour.
Although not obvious from the pictures one of the most effective design features we employed to achieve this, was the contouring of the ground. The flower garden and the dry garden are mounded in part to overcome the poor drainage but also to add interest and separation in what is a small space to fit so much variation.
Large Corten steel water features and trough’s were used to provide structure. The colour is super complimentary to the Cotswold limestone and green of plants.
The wild flower meadow was sown from seed, the winter garden planted with lots of Cornus and other winter stems.
The Petanque piste was more challenging. We had the get the bounce and follow through just right. We sourced a selection of local aggregates and created four blends of mixed size stones and dust for the clients to test and choose.
Despite appearance the plants are relatively low maintenance needing to be cut back once a year. Beyond that the garden looks after itself, save for the odd weed and pruning.
This has to be one of our favourite gardens in the Cotswolds so far.
To find out more about Emotive Landscapes, international award-winning landscape design and build, please view our homepage and the about us section. You can also discover more about our landscape design and build process, or view some of the media coverage that some of our favourite projects have received. To view more of our portfolio, please click here.
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