Planting & Design Portfolio

Whether its a small corner that just needs some colour, an unwelcome eye sore that needs screening with something suitable or a complete re design of a tired old garden. I can do it.

The key is growing conditions. Put the right plants in the right conditions for them to thrive so think about the growing conditions in your garden. Vibrant colour requires a lot of direct sun. Dull shady corners – plenty of choice to plant but will tend to be more lush & green planting that will tolerate the lack of sun eg Ferns, Hellibores, etc so think through what the conditions in your garden are as well as the shapes and colours you like. The Royal Horticultural Society www.rhs.org is a brilliant site to check out.

Other good places for inspiration – Pintrest www.pintrest.co.uk is brilliant for ideas or pop along to my plants supplier Middlecombe nursery in Congresbury www.middlecombenursery.co.uk and check out ideas there then just leave it to me to turn your ideas into reality.

Here’s a few previous projects to give you a taste of what we do.

Emma had an interesting project

2-The focal point is installed

1 – There’s a lot of plants to go in!

3. The ground has been cleared

4 All the plants are laid out

5. In they go

6- The finished article

A big existing raised sleeper bed , split into 3 raised squares– originally planted with vegetables and now completely overgrown. She wanted it turned into a Cottage Style Country Garden. Packed with lots of colour.

I suggested rather than plant the entire bed, lets create a simple focal point in the middle square so that the surrounding cottage style really stands out.

I membraned & gravelled the middle section using cream pea gravel and mounted a simple rusted iron sphere on a slab of slate then planted the cottage garden around it incorporating a mass of coloured perenials but also ornamental grasses and shrubs to give both shape and structure. Plus in winter, when all the flowers are cut down, there’s still something to see.

To add a bit of structural height I also incorporated a rusted iron obelisk at each end for clematis to grow up.

Using planting to screen neighbours

Nikki & Andy were over looked by the neighbours.

They get on fine but just wanted a little more privacy but how to solve it? A 15’ hedge or Fence would have looked like the Berlin Wall so I used a planting solution instead. These 3 small Rowan Trees are ideal. These will fill out and form a low density screen for their garden. Rowan are small trees perfect for blotting out eyesores (and neighbours windows) or adding height and structure to an other wise low vists garden. They grow red or yellow berries but their advantage is they naturally grow into a small tree – you don’t fall into the common pitfall of that wonderful term ‘well it was only small when I planted it’ phrase I hear so often when clients plant beasts like Eycalyptus, Certain species of Silver Birch, Lelandii and the like in small gardens!

Sarah Bath

Sarah has a lovely house but the lawn was totally out of control. Pitted and rutted it was impossible to mow. She parks the car at the bottom of the garden and hates having to look at it and the industrial estate behind is an eyesore…..what shall we do? Hmmmm

Lawn first. Level out the worst of the lumps with a cultivator

2 tons of fresh top soil brought in to level the lawn. Rolled it flat and get the levels right,

She wanted a stepping stone path so we laid it out in a slight serpentine which draws the eye rather than rigid straight lines

Each slab then needs to be cut in just below the level of the lawn so the mower will pass over it laid on a bed of sand

Now its ready to be re seeded

Low Maintenance Design for Debi in Bath

Simple but effective low maintenance gravel planting for Cindy Bath incorporating centrepiece Phornium with ornamental grasses

Lindsay in Bath Lush Exotics

A lush exotic planting scheme with bold architectural foliage

Anne & Martin Portishead

Anne & Martin had a prized bamboo which disguised the neighbours overlooking roof – great, but then started blocking the sea view – arghhh. We created a simple structure with round poles and decking rope to create an interesting focal point to control the critter. Planted a Japanese garden below with Acer Palmatium & ornamemental grasses on a slate base to make it all stand out.

Sheila's Nailsea Garden Transformed!

Well this was Sheila’s garden. Over looked and Run Down

With a rather depressing concrete patio

….and I turned it into this!

The fences were painted a creamy green/grey to add year round colour and make the garden look bigger. A low maintenance bed infilled with crushed slate and a central feature planted with 2 Cyprus with a painted trellis for contrast planted with a red climbing rose to add colour all summer

The old rose arch was ripped out and a new one put in painted to match the fence with early flowering clematis and a summer flowering climbing rose to ensure colour for 3/4 of the year

Still recognise that dreary patio? Rather than the huge cost of re laying it I thought laterally….and painted it! The cream masonry paint transformed the dull concrete. Painted trellis was added to give privacy and I changed the shape further by adding planting in each corner and using slate to round the edges of that once rigid square concrete

What a transformation!