It’s a funny one with landscaping small-er spaces. Because I guess, from a personal perspective; and I know, that it may sound a little selfish, but you essentially end up with one visual of an end result.
In this case, on the one part that comes partly down to client brief. The other reason is that it is down to not so much size, but more the dimensions of the new to be garden and that is something I cannot change. Here however there was an added whammy or a deduction to be taken from the budget.
Because prior to my getting there the space inherited was a grey, gley, bland wilderness of a deforestation programme that had then evolved in to something really terribly horrible, horticulturally. Is that even even correct english ? I wanted to scream very, very quietly at the ‘soil’. Or use a kango hammer on it. Riddled with Ash tree stumplings; all covered over with a sprinkling of grey slate shale, just in case you needed a little more inspiration in life. It was a garden according to the client in which they [quote] had never sat at their own patio table and chairs.
The story does get better….
Budget in mind, here one pays to undo, then to properly raise levels. Materials cost; and then bring in the better soil. But first one must remove and also dispose of. And as important as it is to get the basics so very right, there is really only one part that really, really matters – costs not at all considered and that is, the finished picture.
What they wanted was the garden to be raised up the one level. Greenery. A lawn. A softening. Low maintenance. Not the hedge cutting within three years type. More, of the secateurs. And a lawn. And a feeling of space. And a patio. I think I may have said lawn twice…. And that added with a choice of two natural stones is pretty much what happend.
And now, lawn in place – all 25 sq metres it may surprise you you to hear; the black limestone patio – big enough so that granny doesn’t fall in to the flower bed should she move her chair an inch, feels like it has always been there and one pretty fine addition tied in with the yellow. I love ’em when they dry out. And finally the planting – it’s young, but the garden is new and over/ show garden planting here, was not the logic thing to do horticulturally. And the levels…. you’d hardly even notice they had changed.
Happy. Very. X
Any thoughts or Q’s [?] leave a comment below or drop me a line.
Peter Donegan:
- email: info@doneganlandscaping.com
- phone: +353(87)6594688
- twitter: @DoneganGardens
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