Large Family Garden

Garden Design Brief : Create a relaxing family garden with privacy from the main entrance and parking area

At the start of this garden design project, there was a large and relatively featureless garden, mainly grass and with no privacy from the car parking area and main entrance.

The client's initial requirement was to screen one garden area off from the others. This caused a reduction in the width of the garden closest to the house, so the garden is now at an angle of 45°.  Adding this angle to the garden design increased the sense of width, and helps lead the eye out into the rest of the garden.

With a small paved terrace immediately adjacent to the house, a larger one for family dining lower down and a third one at the far end of the garden for relaxed, casual seating, there are now plenty of sitting areas for the family to choose from – all interlinked, and softened with generous planting in predominantly cool tones. The use of repeat groups of several of the perennials – including Salvia 'Caradonna', Stachys lanata and Alchemilla mollis – helps to bring cohesion to the whole scheme, whilst ornamental grasses such as Stipa and Miscanthus add accents of texture and a sense of movement.