A Family Garden, Wetherby

The brief for this compact garden to the rear of a newly-built house outside Wetherby was to blend a grown up entertaining space and flower garden with a corner for young children.

The garden benefits from being a regular space, with little slope, easily accessed via sliding kitchen doors. However it suffers from partial shade (being north-facing), overlooking from neighbours, a narrow patio and with nothing but lawn it feels considerably smaller than it really is.

As with all smaller gardens, there are three essential rules – keep it simple, create generous spaces that flow into each other and use beautiful materials. den

Our solution was to design a large terrace of large porcelain pavers, which contains dining and seating spaces. These are softened by hedging, plants and animated by a splashing fountain. Flowering fruit trees help define a boundary between the terrace and lawn, which is encircled by a generous flower border with palette of white, purple, ochre and greens. Pleach hornbeam or pear trees provide screening and a new horizontal slatted fence gives an elegant back drop.  The children’s area is kept simple, accessed via raised beds and will be bordered by wild strawberries. It is hidden from the main patio, but visible from a garden seating area opposite.

The scheme will be illuminated subtly at night. As with all our schemes, the planting will provide year-round interest and attract birds and pollinators to the garden.

Build (ideally) mid summer this year.