Windsor Garden Design with a Mediterranean courtyard

This small, shallow Windsor garden needed a complete re-design. The garden is overlooked on both sides, but not from the back. The brief was to create a contemporary garden with a Mediterranean flavour that would be easy to look after. The client requested a large terrace by the house for sunbathing and eating, and a second more intimate seating area separated from the rest of the garden.



There was an enormous Leyland Cypress hedge, plus some over grown Laurels and other evergreen shrubs that combined to give a thick screen along the back boundary. The client liked the feeling of privacy and safety these gave.



Initially, it was intended to keep the Cupressus hedge, but it soon became apparent that if we removed the shrubs the hedging would then have ugly dead patches. In the end it was the client’s decision to remove all existing trees and shrubs and start again. I was relieved as not only do I think the old trees and shrubs were past their best, it’s always nice to be given a blank canvas.



Here’s the scheme I designed:-





Week one – clearing. The saying goes ‘you need to break a few eggs to make an omlette’ and this was Greg Tranckle Landscapes version of egg breaking! Everything was removed from the garden.





Week two and the the old garden is gone, a new fence is installed and the excavations start for the new garden. A footpath runs along the back of the property and the client wanted the fence to be the maximum height to discourage casual intruders.





Week four and the courtyard is taking shape. The blockwork walls are up to their full height and Greg and the lads have constructed the arched windows that give the courtyard a more Mediterranean feeling.







Week five and the courtyard is really starting to look finished. The circular steps are constructed and the render is on the walls. The water feature blade on the front outside wall of the courtyard is in place and the reservoir is constructed.








I think I’ve lost the battle to paint the courtyard walls pink – the debate about colour is ongoing. I really want the walls to be a strong, statement colour, but the client is understandably nervous.

Keep following – I’ll post more progress shots in a few days.

If you need help designing your garden please feel free to email me linsey@linseysgardens.com. You can visit my Web site and see some of my other completed projects and get a bit more information.

Case study - large, long garden in Caversham, Reading, Berkshire

This long garden in Caversham, Berkshire is one-third of an acre, backs onto a golf course and has great views over the surrounding countryside. The clients wanted to preserve the views and keep the garden natural. The garden attracts a variety of wildlife which the clients enjoy and want to encourage. The idea is to create a new garden where nature and people can live stylishly side-by-side. The clients had employed an architect to design an extension and therefore appreciate fully the benefits of working with garden designer on the outside space – what a nice change!



The requirements included a herb garden between an existing summer house and shed, a paved area outside the summer house and planting to help integrate it into the garden. The existing patio was to be extended and the original gateposts, complete with decades of lichen, at the bottom of the garden were to be kept and incorporated into the design. Three ancient apple trees were to be retained and added to if possible. The greenhouse was to stay along with the Fig tree that lives behind it. At the front of the house a new driveway and front entrance to make the front garden more practical and beautiful were required.



I love flint, I was born and raised in Buckinghamshire where it is used everywhere. In this garden all retaining walls are faced with flint and stone. Flint is not only a beautiful construction material; it is widely used in this area as there was a huge flint quarry in Reading. I am going to use Limestone blocks as a frame for flint panels in all the walls. This will blend the garden in with local architecture and look stunning.



I really wanted break the garden up into different areas and give it more personality, impact and a sense of drama. The challenge was to do this without using too much hard landscaping. The new design uses a series of circles that delineate the transitions through the garden and mark out different areas. The circles are linked by 45 degree angle straight lines and asymmetric curves, which combine to give the garden a sense of movement and rhythym, a strong shape that directs attention inwards to various focal points, and also allows the eye to travel to the view beyond the gate.

There are grass paths entered and exited via Hornbeam arches and bounded by Hornbeam hedges. Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is one of my favourite hedging plants. It’s tougher and more drought tolerant than Beech, but looks very similar. Hornbeam (like Beech) holds its dead leaves in winter and they make a lovely rustling sound when moved by the wind.




A sunken seating area at the bottom of the garden with built in seats and a fire pit at its centre will provide a sheltered area for a meal or a glass of wine at night. This area will be sunk 45cm below finished lawn level and accessed by three shallow steps. The retaining walls have a circular tower at one end; one wall has its tower at the entrance and the other at the exit. Each tower will be topped with a copper bowl and water will bubble up through the centre of the bowl. Bronze bio-ethanol torches will be placed opposite each entrance/exit tower. Retaining walls and towers will be faced with stone and flint. The outside face of the retaining walls will be finished with a turf mound to blend it into the landscape. These turf structures also give a natural, sculptural finish to this structure and blend it into the overall aesthetic of the garden.



Either side of the existing gateposts at the bottom of the garden there will be a raised bed 60cm high. The retaining walls will be faced with Limestone and flint.

Between the summer house and shed is a small, formal herb garden accessed through a simple wooden arch and screened with trellis panels. The paving in this area is self binding gravel and the beds are finished with a granite sett edging.

The shed is screened by a low wall 45cm high topped with a bespoke screen of 150mm x 25mm wooden planks set at an angle like a large Venetian blind. The wall will be faced with stone and flint. The redundant area to the rear of the shed and summer house will be cleared and widened to provide space and screening for compost bins and water butts.

The shapes from the rear garden are echoed in the front garden. More parking space and kerb appeal is provided by a gorgeous resin bonded gravel driveway. Planting and a new hedge along the front boundary will soften the new driveway. All planted areas are edged with black granite setts. A 60cm high stone and flint faced wall will form the boundary running up to the garage to give the front garden a more elegant look and tie in with the architecture of the rear garden. The front gatepost will be moved to widen the entrance. The gatepost will be faced with stone and flint. The front step and threshold will be paved with traditional Victorian tiles, an echo back to the original period of the house.



If you need help designing your garden please get in touch. You can email me at linsey@linseysgardens.com, all other contact details are on my Web site.

Garden Design Ideas - Long, Narrow Garden, Woking, Surrey

The build for this long, narrow garden in Woking, Surrey has just started and it demonstrates some of the methods you can use to deal with a long, narrow sites.

This is an unusually large plot for a suburban garden and the clients were not using the whole garden. They wanted a plan that would enable them to use more of the garden and make it more interesting. The brief was to keep the scheme soft and as natural as possible with quite a lot of lawn. They also wanted space to grow plenty of plants. They were open to ideas and wanted a scheme that was a little different.

These first four shots show the route up the garden:-









And this is the route back down the garden:-









Here is the plan I designed for the new garden:-







I have used sweeping curves to give the garden movement, draw the eye away from the boundaries, and reduce the tunnel effect of the long, narrow site. I have introduced some height near the house by using some chunky, free-standing wooden arches. There is a self-binding gravel pathway under the arches and through the planting on either side. There is plenty of planting as the client is a keen gardener and has the time and inclination to be outside looking after the plants.

There is a level change of around 1 metre from the top to the bottom of the garden, rising away from the house. To address this, I have designed some curved turf steps with risers constructed from railway sleepers cut and set on end around the curves. Some of the borders will be raised and their retaining walls will also be made from railway sleepers cut and set on end. The reason for using railway sleepers is to keep the garden within a reasonable budget and also avoid using brick or blocks to construct the risers which would not have fitted with the clients’ requirements for a natural looking garden.

There is a secondary seating area half way up the garden, sited in an area which catches the evening sun. The idea is to give the clients a reason for going up the garden and enable them to use more of the garden. The seating area will be screened with a curved hornbeam hedge. I like using hornbeam for screening – it is fast growing, drought tolerant, loved by birds and easy to keep clipped into a tight shape. The purpose of the hedge is to form a green wall at the rear of the seating area and I want it to be cut into a formal shape so that it helps to emphasise the curves of the garden.

The border by the left-hand boundary fence at the rear of the garden will be planted with a mixed native hedgerow. I intend to include Acer Campestre, Euynymus Europaeus, Rosa Canina, Prunus spinosa, Cratageus monogyna, Rosa Rugosa, and Viburnum Opulus.

At the bottom of the garden is a utility area for recycling, composting, and general storage. This area is bounded by railway sleepers set on end at a height of 1.8m with a gap in between each sleeper. This screen will look like a chunky Venetian blind on it’s side. There is also an archway through to this area.

One way of giving interest to a long, narrow garden is to split the space into distinct areas. I had to give the impression of different rooms without erecting hard barriers. I created the illusion of rooms within the garden by dividing the space into three distinct areas and giving each one a different feeling. The area adjoining the house is for dining and sitting and has a more formal feeling with a paved terrace. The simple arches will lead people around this area into a slightly less formal area with the smaller seating area as it's focal point. The third area will be given a more relaxed feeling with loose, native planting and some new trees making a pleasant walk to the storage area with it's unusual screen.

If you’d like some more garden design ideas for long narrow gardens have a look at this link.

If you’d like help designing your garden please visit my Web site for all contact details.