For one of our freshest new planting design projects, we were asked to create a spring scheme specially to celebrate a little lady’s christening, and beyond.
Come for a relaxing stroll around the garden with me and tell you about how our planting designer and soft landscaping team created this vernal fanfare.
The house and garden here are relatively newly built and so, as is often the case, the garden is somewhat of a blank canvas. It needed to be elevated with softness and colour to unify the house and garden.
With this in mind, our planting designer created a planting story that would not only bring the internal and external elements of the property together, but would also welcome you into the garden; breaking up the hardscaping and lawn.
Looking to the sightlines from the house (we spend everyday looking at views from inside ours houses, so important pay special attention to these vistas), the main garden has a substantial set of steps between two tiered terraces and needed softening into the landscape.
A healthy dose of long-performing perennial planting, including Nepeta racemosa ‘Snowflake’ and lavandula, ensures a changing picture through the seasons, whilst retaining a welcoming view all year.
From the rear elevation of the house the two terraces appear and lead straight to lawn. We introduced two large linear beds with rows of lavandula angustifolia ‘Vera’ (an heirloom english lavender with blue sepals and purple-blue flowers) to bring the garden to the house and diffuse the strong vertical lines of the architecture into the landscape.
Lavender keeps its structure all year round and are combined with alliums – planted in-the-green to bloom just in time for the Christening – whose pom-pom heads pop through the lavenders foliage, ahead of the lavender blooms, which follow-on to continue the floral display for months.
Keeping sustainability in mind, the winter planting from a row of planters along the top terrace was relocated into the main garden, where it will continue to grow and thrive. The planters then filled with a spring-season selection to enchant the eye in this seating area, with the frothy Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony‘ and the prolific lilac of Scabiosa blooms. Tiny, bell-shaped geums amongst the recipe celebrate the christening.
The entrance drive has been planted with ‘forest floor’ style feel to naturalise with the existing trees and mature native hedging, including Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, two varieties of ferns en masse and Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Purple Pixie’.
The front of house was already well planted, so the space was surveyed and a standard Photinia relocated from a pot into the garden, near to the front door. This rouge-leafed lovely plays beautifully with the existing ruddy leaves on the climbing roses and the adjacent mature Sarcococca echoing the leaf form of both plants. These fine specimens have been judiciously pruned to shape.
Existing troughs and stone benches have been re-arranged in the garden scene. The first bench brought to the rear utility door, where it will prove handy for bags, tools etc. Espying a spot for the second stone bench at the bottom of the garden looking back up to the house for the little ones to find and sit together playing.
A garden made beautiful for a young family to celebrate and grow together.
Got a big event to celebrate? Our soft landscaping team create planting schemes to enchant and dazzle. We’d love to hear about your big day. Let’s talk planting design.
