Last November I went to see prospective clients on a site near Cheltenham, and knew straightaway that this project was one that I very much wanted to be involved with. The house was very contemporary, with curved facades and large areas of glass. Inside the style was personal and distinctive, with a large collection of mainly North American art. The big windows gave great views out onto the garden, and the clients were keen to really transform the currently uninspiring garden.
Above: the back garden before work started; TPO'd Yew tree in prominent position
To my delight the meeting went well and my quote was accepted, and I started work on the design soon after. I used Sketchup to really understand the level changes and the relationships of the spaces to each other, as well as the views out from the house, and the movement of the sun around the garden. The curved architecture of the house gave me a strong starting point for the design. There were also several mature trees on site, two of them protected by TPOs, and the constraints of preserving the existing levels around the trees also helped to generate the final design. My clients proved to be wonderfully adventurous and open to ideas, and agreed to incorporating a feature curved wall made of rammed earth, two substantial water features and a summerhouse with a green roof. They were happy with specification of high quality materials including Quercus woven oak fencing, low retaining walls made of chunky green oak sleepers set vertically to form curves, and sawn yorkstone paving.
Above - positioning the formwork for the curved rammed earth wall. Quercus fencing looking great on the boundary.
Once the full tender package had been drawn up and prices returned, we were able to appoint Jim Steed from Outdoor Living Space, a choice I was very happy with as he had built a garden for me before and I had been impressed with his workmanship and attention to detail. Work on site started in earnest in July, and has been going very smoothly (except for the issues with restrictive covenants and withdrawn permitted development rights, which are another story altogether...). The water features are being built by Sam Clark from Landscaping4u, so it is a collaborative effort, and this seems to be working well. All the contractors are very happy to be treated to regular deliveries of buckets of tea and home made cake from the clients! (Sadly I always seem to miss the cake break...)
Above - setting out the lines of setts which will cut through the yorkstone paving, and looking to the split levl pool beyond
As ever it's exciting to see my design taking shape, and this project is particularly enjoyable because of the great clients and team spirit from all involved. Can't wait to see it all planted up!
Above - pool going in next to the front door. I'm looking forward to seeing the effect of light reflecting off the water into the walls and ceiling inside.
Comments
Looking forward to the next instalment Rose.
The quality of workmanship is immediately evident.
thanks all - will post more pics as the work progresses.
A lovely job to get! Good luck with the rest of the build. Did you Survey yourself?
Thanks Phil. Survey was done by Sitech in Cirencester. I do have the kit for levels surveys but it's not really what I want to spend my time doing, so I recommend professional surveys to my clients on anything other than small, straightforward gardens.
I like to have all the levels absolutely spot on so normally would recommend professional surveys too but increasingly I'm finding that it way too expensive compared to the overall budget. Do you find it difficult to persuade clients to pay for this service?
I agree Phil, professional surveys do seem expensive on top of design fees. Perhaps that just shows that designers are not charging enough! I think since I became MSGD, the sort of enquiries I get through the SGD website are from clients who see the garden design process as equivalent to paying an architect to do design work on their house, and also understand that other professional input may be needed eg engineer, surveyor etc. But yes, for many schemes/ clients, the cost of a professional survey is offputting...
This has been a fun project to be a part of. After days of fibre glassing i am looking forward to seeing the pools filled with water and the fish go in. It is good to be part of building such an exciting design.