Outdoor Room

The Requirement: Renew the garden, establishing a comfortable area for relaxing and entertaining and including screening at the boundary where necessary.

The Solution: A usable space: the new outdoor dining area becomes a focal point in the garden, enclosed by raised beds and a simple timber beam.

Overgrown shrubs and old structures have been cleared away, suddenly giving more space in the garden to allow for alternative sitting areas.

At the boundaries a new hedge of western red cedar ensures privacy from neighbouring properties.

Landscaper: Rob Cottrell 07720 449 580

The Requirement: make the garden usable as a space for relaxing and entertaining. Create planting beds in shallow, rubble-filled topsoil. Improve the lawn.

The Solution: a rectilinear pattern at 45 degrees to the house leads to a central terrace.

A simple beam extends from the house, linking the shapes in the pattern and giving height to the enclosure.

The pattern is defined by raised beds with walls at sitting height, enclosing the terrace to make an outdoor room.

Climbing plants will eventually cover the beam, giving softness and colour. The raised beds are filled with new topsoil, creating good planting areas, while the lawn has been excavated and replaced.

The Requirement: Create a private hideaway between the walls of the garden and an old air-raid shelter. Decorate the space with pretty planting including climbing plants and fruit.

The Solution: the groundwork sets up planting beds at the edges of the space, and shingle paths through the middle that appear to merge with the beds.

The walls are used to support climbing plants and trained fruit trees such as apples and morello cherry.

The planting brings a succession of colour and texture. The plants seem to spill out of their beds across the path.

There is enough space in this tiny area to include a bench at one end and a table and chairs at the other, all surrounded by planting.