Woodland glade garden in Dedham, Essex

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John and Liz had a rectangular section of garden about 18 metres long by about 6 metres wide, at the end was a large mature Willow tree, the rest of the rectangle was made up of weeds and grass. This section of garden had laid unused for several years since they had moved in, they were bored of the view from the kitchen window and were looking for something other than the usual ‘lawn – patio – mixed border’ combination.

Using the Willow as a feature of the new garden, I designed and made a water garden. It starts with a spring, under the Willow, where water emerges from several places from bare rock and flows along a shallow stream. This is planted with Dwarf Mace Reed, and Butomus umbellatus (a flowering Reed). The water flows past a pebble beach and on to where the water drops a few inches into the pond, keeping noise levels to a minimum. The pond is divided into two sections. The first section is a deep pool which can be used on very hot days as a plunge pool (great for the kids to splash around in) or where you may sit on a rock and dangle your feet into the water. The second section is divided by boulders and contains a variety of marginal water plants. The shallow stream, with its reeds, allow the water to warm up in Summer also the reeds help to keep the nutrition levels down and the water clear. This is supported by a bio pressure filter fitted with a 30 Watt UV bulb as well as an Ion Emitter which mineralizes the water and prevents the formation of fibrous algae.

Beside the pebble beach and stream is a small handmade ‘Snug’ with a sloping ‘living roof’. Inside are the electrics to manage the lighting, pump, pressure filter, and ionator as well a double socket to allow one to sit and work with a laptop or plug in additional lighting or music. There is also a shelf inside, on which are a number of items found whilst digging out the garden, some are pretty old my favourite is a fragment of crockery that depicts a steam paddle boat.

BEFORE

AFTER

The planting for the garden is informal and is designed to give a feeling of a natural woodland glade. Under the willow and along both sides of the stream the planting is of a woodland nature; Foxgloves, Bergenias, Ferns, Primulas, Heucheras, Geraniums, Hostas, bulbs. Whereas outside the drape of the the Willow, the planting is a Flowering meadow mixture. The area closest to the house is being kept as a normal lawn so that it may be used to sit and relax or entertain friends. This whole garden is screened off from view from the outside by overlapping Willow fence panels (thin Willow branches Woven through to make up an attractive natural and rustic looking screen) on which we are growing a mixture of Clematis and HoneySuckle.

Throughout the garden and in the Snug is a low voltage lighting system on a Dawn2Dusk sensor meaning that every evening the lights come on at dusk for a pre determined time and then switch themselves off. garden lighting transforms the use of your garden after dark. To ensure all the plants get enough water there is an automatic irrigation system since a large willow will create dry shade and the shallow living roof will dry out in a couple of days as a planter would.

Family garden, Holbrook, Suffolk

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The Client brief – to create a family garden out of what used to be a pub carpark, and a brick, glass, crockery dump – well thats what i discovered the garden space was made up of but all that hardcore and rubbish was hidden under a thin layer of turf, scabby grass, and weeds.

BEFORE

other requests were to move the existing vehicle entrance which was near the house down to the bottom of a separate paddock, remove the separating wall, close up the old driveway and create an new one to come up to the house. Allow the parents to view the entire length of the garden so that they may see their children playing down the bottom. Make the garden as simple and easy to maintain as possible.

AFTER

Being a family garden there needs to be plenty of lawn play area for the kids but also somewhere that provides an area of interest for them that is safe but secludes the kids from the openess of the garden like a den but not just a play house - a secret garden!

On the outside of the garden and along the roadside we cleared the bricks and rubbish, weeds, and stones and planted a row of Allium and rows of early.Mid, and late Narcissus. Instead of turfing this strip of soil we have sown a flowering meadow mix that will need little maintenance and will soften,and brighten up the village of Holbrook.

WHATS IN THE GARDEN

  • A new Sandstone patio to replace the concrete crazy paving laid down in the middle of the last century
  • Invisible irrigation systems including ‘pop-up’ lawn sprinklers automatically ensure everything has sufficient water
  • A raised Kitchen bed constructed of new railway sleepers and automatically irrigated
  • Safe low voltage lighting on a ‘dawn2dusk’ sensor brings the garden to life at dusk without the bother of switching them on and off manually
  • Pebble water feature in the Secret Garden
  • New gravel driveway
  • New section of brick wall
  • Hand made solid Oak door to allow pedestrian acess.
  • New made to measure ‘Wall top Trellis’
  • Rustic Rose Arches
  • New lawn and an Evergreen planting plan
  • Feather edge Fencing to hide the Oil Tank, New Shed, and Storage Area
  • Composting Boxes
  • Weed supressant Mulch on all beds

If you would like to discuss your garden wishes or any aspect of gardens and or garden maintenance please contact me.

Stream and waterfall for existing pond

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This was a pond that had been made recently by a landscaper but a rather unimaginative effort with the pond liner clearly visible as was the pipe for the pump and the electric cable. The stream they built was one of those narrow gutters with same sized rocks lining the length and a waterfall of about 2-3 inches. In fact the stream was so flat that it also emptied at the back of the stream by the filter meaning the client could only run it for a few hours before having to fill the pond up again.

I contructed a new pool at the head of the stream which flowed over pebbles,river stones and boulders much like a mountain stream and then over a large flat rock and into the pond falling approx 2 feet. The earth banks have been planted with ground covering ‘Mind Your Own Business’ (a good substitute for Moss) and Ajuga Reptans another ground covering plant with small spires of blue flowers and a couple of Ferns.

To get the stone that i wanted for this and every water garden project i do, i go and hand pick stone from Agstone, a Quarry in Lancashire. The pebbles, cobbles, and boulders can be bought from a good landscaping centre.

Pond and garden Suffolk

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The brief for this garden was to create a small natural looking pond and provide planting for the whole garden, The planting plan was to be of a tropical look using hardy palms, Ferns, and other evergreen shrubs that would add to that tropical look such as Fatsia, Dicksonia Antartica, Acuba along with Red Acers, Bamboo and a number of perennials.

The rocks that lined the pond hid the pond liner (not Buytl Liner but a more modern and flexible alternative called Greenseal which i buy from Water Gardening Direct) giving the pond a more natural look with a small waterfall on one side and a pebble beach on the other comprising of a dozen or more different sized pebbles, river stones and boulders as well as Sandstone hand picked from Agstone quarry in Lancashire. The Pump is hidden as is all tubing and wiring and a pressure UV filter burried and hidden at the back of the pond. A couple of low voltage lights were submersed to add interest at nightfall.

A solid Oak Pergola was hand made to fit over the existing patio area and LED low voltage lanterns fixed to the posts. Evergreen Clematis Armandi was planted to grow over the Pergola.

A low voltage ‘Plug n Play’ lighting system was installed to light up certain plants and shrubs as well as the Pergola and the pond. The lights are on an automatic ‘Dusk to Dawn’ light sensor with an adjustable time dial so that whatever the season the lights come on at dusk and can run from one hour to nine hours transforming the look of the garden at night as well as being economical to install and run in fact the whole garden is lit by less than 150Watts.

Two automatic irrigation systems were installed one is a ‘leaky pipe’ system a porus pipe that circulates around the planting watering the plants by osmosis.

The other system is a drip feed and micro mist sprinkler system that specifically waters the Tree Ferns and the plants around the pond. Both these systems are on separate timers.

Design and build of large patio

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This project was to re-design and build a new patio to go where there was an old 1970,s patio made up of concrete slabs and overgrown leggy shrubs, We also undertook a smaller one at the side of the house as well. Along with the new Raj Green Indian Sandstone patios is a new planting scheme to go in the now cleared beds also an irrigation system and lighting. This stage of the project will be carried out at a later date.

Pergola Suffolk

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THE BRIEF

A Patio which lacked a defined social area it had a couple of tables with sets of chairs and then a large and expansive lawn. We designed and built a large solid Oak pergola with a brick surround in front of which we planted a row of Lavender so that one was led from the Pergola onto the lawn

THE RESULT

A well defined eating and drinking area big enough for friends and family to enjoy. In time the two Wisteria that we planted at one end will grow to cover much of the frame.

 

Suffolk planting

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THE BRIEF

The client had recently re-developed a public building into a home and was looking for someone to come up with a formal planting plan to fit in with her architects plan of hard landscaping.

WHAT TO DO

Using a limited selection of plants and colours – some Verbena bonsarias – (floating sprays of blue flowers), plenty of Lavender (Silver grey foiliage) and some Purple Huchera (Red foiliage) with a back drop of evergreen Laurel and dogwood for added winter colour. All contained within low box hedging.

THE RESULT

All year round interest with lots of neat box hedging making the property look both formal and colourful.

Water feature garden

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In the winter of 2008/09 Earthmoves designed and built this garden which involved a small natural looking pond/water feature, a solid Oak Pergola as well as a tropical looking planting scheme using Hardy plants, an automatic irrigation system, and a low voltage lighting system.

As this project was built during the Winter we will post new pics of the change in planting from Winter to Summer.

Guys n Dolls SW1

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THE BRIEF

When we first saw the garden it was a building site. Since the shop was to sell kids clothes we wanted somewhere they could go and play or sit whilst their mums browsed the shop.

THE RESULT

A central patio area of rubber tiles surrounded by banks of grass with two Japanese Acer trees. Neat, Minimal and with no fussy plants or beds to have to maintain or damage its the ideal solution for the busy shop.

Lower Slone St SW1

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This is one of our maintenance contracts. It runs down half the length of Lower Sloane Street in London SW1 its about 180mtrs long but only about 12mtrs wide. Earthmoves took over the communal garden a couple of years ago with the widening and additional planting of the shrub border as it was very narrow and left little or no room for perennials.

This venture involved much physical grunt work as dozens of railway sleepers, tons of topsoil and hundreds of potted plants had to be brought in by hand down a steep set of stairs, along a narrow tunnel, and then up and around another set of twisting stairs. This project was then followed up by a pruning of the London Plane trees that overshadowed the entire length of the garden

We have just completed the annual Leaf collecting game and have just finished planting up our spring bulbs of mixed Daffs in the long mixed shrub border and in the centre bed and troughs we have planted yellow wallflowers and red Tulips you can see the result from pics that i took in spring 2008 showing the troughs and centre bed.

As well as the seasonal planting and general maintenance of the garden we are also carrying out a makeover on a large pile of rubble – the result of a World War ll bomb which has for a long time become overgrown with weeds. This has had the leading face made into a rockery and planted with Alpines, heathers, and small bulbs while the rest of the mound has been planted with shrubs, Ferns, bulbs, and a small kitchen herb garden.