Church View; Brockham, Surrey
- Concept and Planting Design – David Stone, Bushy Business Ltd
- Hard & Soft Landscaping – By Bushy Business Ltd
Brief;
The client had bought an old property behind their garden which they were redeveloping and wanted to link the new garden to theirs so they were separate entities with their own feel but that also linked and flowed between one another. From a blank canvas of a building site the garden wrapped all around the house and only had a Cherry tree hiding a house behind in the front garden, and a large Mulberry tree in the back garden of any merit or interest. Other neighbouring properties needed disguising but there was no real depth to the garden where you could layer trees and planting, so key plants was used to draw the eye away from or to it, or to other areas and features. A dry riverbed was created running between the properties ending at an existing pond at the front of the house. A boardwalk ran alongside with large glacial boulders as steppingstones and reclaimed oak timbers from the old house used to make a bridge. Lush planting ran all the way through, from multi stem Prunus serrula to Betula nigra creating height, structure along with a sense of maturity interspersed with ferns and shade loving plants near the cover of the house to moist loving plants by the riverbed and then up to flowering herbaceous perennials such as Monarda and Aquilegia that help to integrate it into the existing garden next door. Subtle lighting beneath the boardwalk, up lighting trees and casting light and shadow around boulders all added to the drama and interest of the area.
