The last sweep up is done. The skip has gone. The sprinkler is going on the immaculate new lawn. The sun is out (just about) and for one family in Clifton, it’s time for them to enjoy the Summer in their smart new garden.

I began work on the design for this garden in the winter last year and it has been a thoroughly rewarding process working with the client and the talented team of contractors to deliver a new garden which will hopefully bring many years of enjoyment to this family. The brief was to do a complete re-design on the existing garden and create a space that would draw the family out into the garden to enjoy it together. My client is a keen plantswoman with extensive plant knowledge of her own, but the form and shape of the garden needed addressing. My client likes strong lines and formal shapes - my job was to create a more cohesive, structured layout to the garden and combine this with planting that delivered clean lines and a sense of formality whilst staying true to the traditional Clifton architecture of the house. I needed a design that would sympathetically blend the traditional and the modern. The photos below show the journey of the build from start to finish.

Original garden when I first visited in Winter last year

Everything stripped back, and work begins laying the clay paver brick path which would form the backbone of this design. @chelmervalley

Working on the terrace. The path takes shape. Planting of the smart new pleached hornbeams which form a screen at the bottom of the garden.

Introducing form; in the shape of topiary and sculpture (https://www.aplaceinthegarden.co.uk/) and laying the membrane that will sit beneath the gravel.

The turf goes down. Into the finishing stages….

The finished garden. Time to pour a glass of wine and enjoy!