We were called in by the client to adapt this established garden into a 'sanctuary'. The house was bought because of the garden and its potential use for rehabilitation,

and with extensive building works being undertaken it was vital that the garden and its plants were protected from the onslaught of cement and bricks. The garden also needed to be accessible throughout without turning it into a paved concrete jungle. An access point to the top of the garden was made by creating an entry through an existing border. The lawn was then graded to create a gentle slope from the end of the newly created path to all grassed points of the garden. The whole was returfed and covered with a plastic webbing called Ground Guard to create year-round access.You can see from the picture below that, it initially makes the lawn look like badly laid Astroturf! However, once the grass grows through it, it becomes completely invisible and you can mow the lawn as usual.

All the beds, where appropriate, were edged with substantial rocks or with metal edging with a rolled top. This prevented the wheelchair mounting the beds. Plants were moved around to create an interesting vista from wherever you looked out of the bungalow. Azaleas, rhododendrons were under-planted with cyclamen, spring-flowering crocuses, narcissi. The existing rock garden around the pond was extended to create a barrier between the patio and the grass and planted with small alpines.

The old vegetable patch was covered with a fruit cage and planted up with a variety of soft fruit. A raised bed filled with strawberries was subdivided by the cage netting; one side planted with the larger strawberry and the other with small fragrant alpine strawberries which could be picked by the client on her way past. (Alpine strawberries do not generally attract the attention of foraging blackbirds.)

Before

During

After

Spring 2010

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