We were delighted to be presented recently with a National Landscape Award for one of our garden designs in Cheltenham. The annual awards are hosted by BALI, the British Association of Landscape Industries, and are the largest landscaping awards in Europe. The awards are open to all BALI members with the aim of ‘inspiring and celebrating landscaping excellence’.
Our Cheltenham garden design, titled A Secret Garden Sanctuary, was a winner in the Domestic Garden Construction £30k–£60k category. This garden design was a really collaborative project with the clients, who wanted their garden to become an integral part of the family home.
We always say, ‘we don’t build gardens; we transform lives’. Our ethos is to help people enjoy outdoor living. It really matters to us how people use their space, so a successful garden design begins with us listening to the client. Here’s how we designed our client’s award-winning garden:
As suggested by the title of the garden design, A Secret Garden Sanctuary, peace and tranquillity was a key concern for the client. Even though this garden was in the middle of a residential street in Cheltenham, the client wanted it to feel like an escape from town. We achieved this by installing a bespoke water feature as a focal point and to cut through the noise of the traffic from nearby roads. We also added screening around the garden to add privacy from neighbours by installing mature trees in planters and a living ivy screen.
The clients wanted to enjoy an element of outdoor living from their garden design. As they were having a new extension, we were able to incorporate features that allowed the garden to flow into the home. They also wanted the new water feature to be visible from every room in the house. We achieved this by installing a new picture window in the old part of the house which also meant there was a lot more glass opening up from the house onto the garden, creating that indoor-outdoor feeling.
To meet all the needs of the family, it was important that the outdoor space could be used to entertain friends and family in different areas. The clients have teenagers, so meeting their needs was important as well, which meant incorporating space for activities such as a basketball hoop. In the garden design, we created different seating and dining areas, including comfortable seating and a separate area around a firepit so the children and grown-ups could entertain their friends independently.
Attracting wildlife to the garden was important to the clients who had an interest in growing marginal plants. We designed a bespoke water feature to attract insects and birds with a shallow area for wildlife to access the pond. This also allowed us to incorporate a boggy area for planting. We designed parts of the garden around a beautiful, established acer which was a bonus to the clients who thought we would have needed to remove it because of changes to the ground levels.
One of the great things about this project was that the client trusted us to create a completely bespoke garden using our knowledge and expertise. We really enjoyed building it for them, especially as they tell us how much they now enjoy their garden!
BALI represents all landscape professionals with over 900 accredited members, from landscape gardeners and garden designers to landscape architects and builders. The body is committed to continually improving the landscape sector and sets high standards for its Accredited Designer members. For that reason, membership is only granted to companies who meet BALI’s stringent terms and conditions. We are proud to say that we have been offering landscape gardening with BALI accreditation since 3rd September 2013.
Our job is to help you get the most out of your outdoor space, so if you would like to have your own secret garden sanctuary to come home to, get in touch with our expert team of garden designers and landscapers gardeners. Contact us with your ideas and thoughts and we can grow from there!
