Colourful Bedford Garden for Entertaining and Leisure
Images from before the Garden Design Process and Build
Garden Design Brief
The focus of this garden was to bring the space together with Elements such as the hot tub, the Tiki house and existing plants to be retained, but also to provide bounteous colour and an opportunity to make seasonal garden changes for a client keen on their gardening! To bring all these elements together, in a tight space required a great deal of consideration and thought, where carefully chosen materials brought cohesion and light to a garden space which otherwise may have seemed cramped.
Images after Design implementation
Colourful Planting Design
The planting in this garden is abundant, bubbly and colourful, reflecting the fabulous clients, who adore colour and interesting combinations. Wildlife, also keenly important to the clients here, is well catered for with food for pollinators, grasses for insects and birds, and shrubs for shelter and shade. Both evergreen and deciduous grasses will help provided winter structure through seed-heads and winter colour. Successional blooms will provide year round floral interest and seasonal highs throughout the garden design. The planting is extended through the use of Green Walls, a Pergola and seasonal potted plants.
Accent Plant Pots
Occasional plant pots were incorporated into the space for the clients to create seasonal displays, weather through climbers, perennials, shrubs, annual or bedding plants, allowing for easy to switch out seasonal adaptations. This seasonality is repeated and complimented in the use of green walls in this garden space.
Green Walls
These green walls take advantage of the vertical growing space in this compact urban garden, allowing for additional planting for clients eager to maximise planting space. Additionally the green walls allow for some extra play for the clients, creating the opportunity for easy change through the seasons as desired. They compliment the incorporated pots in this seasonal quality. From a eco-friendly standpoint of course, green walls have the added benefit of providing insulation, reducing the heat in the summer and keeping the warm in during the winter months, reducing energy consumption.
Lawn Stepping stones
The use of stepping stones through the lawn in this garden gave the lawn a much larger feel than a solid path might. It softens a path and integrates it into the space such that the paving feels less restricted and grounded as part of the wider garden.
Garden Hot Tub
This hot tub was a pre-existing feature in this town garden, and had to be elegantly incorporated into the space. Steps were require and a shelf for beverages and perhaps a mobile phone or two was added, a beam through the shelf allows for clothes hooks allowing for gowns and towels to be at hand when the moment comes to top up a drink! The hot tub and its neighbouring features are softened by planting, and a beautiful overhanging Birch Tree. The steps were also designed to allow for easy access to the maintenance hatch, making sure that the design protected and future-proofed against complications down the road.
Garden Lighting Design
The Light in this space really allows for the client to get the most out of their space, creating a garden for any time of the day, and crucially make sure that the hot tub is safe to access even late at night. Down light is used predominantly, to reduce the light spill into other areas and promote the 'Dark Sky' Initiative. Taking advantage of the Pergola in this design, overhead lighting is brought into the wider garden without the need to use up-lighting fixtures. Wildlife is adversely effected, as are humans, to the constant light pollution in urban areas. Using zoned lighting and down lighting, as we have here minimalizes its impact whilst allowing the garden to be used into the evening.
