Hurley Garden

A reasonably large garden close to the river on the border of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, this garden was quite a challenge due to its irregular shape and overgrown nature – let alone the raised swimming pool which the clients wanted removing.

The clients had recently purchased the property and were looking to create a garden that had two main requirements – a wide variety of planting in generous borders and a large area for entertaining including a pizza oven and barbecue.

In addition to this, we added a wildlife pond with adjoining circular decking, a matching deck off the living room patio doors, black granite paving and all off-set by some fantastic bespoke Corten steel planters which have now rusted down to a lovely orange which compliments the adjacent planting.

We also created a screened area for the client’s existing hot-tub, along with a utility area for storage.  Subsequently we have added a vegetable growing area with some raised oak beds for the clients to grow their own produce.

There was a huge amount of hard landscaping work to be done before we could start putting the new garden together, most of which was centred around the removal of the old swimming pool and overgrown laurel hedges.  Once this had been done and the area levelled we then created the main patio area and built the outdoor kitchen, the pizza oven having to be supported by blockwork which we then clad in London Stone’s DesignClad porcelain – the colour was chosen to match the Corten steel of the planters provided to our specifications by EverEdge.  The pizza oven was used the day after it was put in place, and has been ever since – giving a very popular hub to the main seating area.

With the planting I worked very closely with the clients, who are keen gardeners and were after a mixture of attractive and wildlife friendly plants – we came up with an original plan including trees, shrubs and a variety of perennials which the client has added to over time.  Planting was chosen to give a long season of interest and included wildflower plantings in the birch grove, pond plants (both around and in the new pond) and sweeping borders brimming with choice perennials.  Initial planting was supplemented with annuals grown from seed grown by the client.