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Formal Front Garden, Beckenham

tcrawford — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 17:52:18 +0000

Formal Front Garden, Beckenham

The Design Brief

To give the traditional red-brick Victorian house more curb appeal, with space for parking as well as paths leading to the front and rear of the house. Useable parking space needed to be increased without detracting from the look of the garden.

The Challenge

A very tired space with an existing dominating ash tree taking up a great deal of useable space. The house sits on a corner plot with no proper boundary, meaning members of the public would often cut across it.

The Design Solution

The garden is set out in a traditional, rectilinear design; on one side Victorian tiled pathways are surrounded by low hedged borders while the other side is given over to a resin bound drive. New brick walling harmonises with the house brick and encompasses the garden, creating an attractive boundary to both sides of the plot.

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Italianate Front Garden, Kent

tcrawford — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:12:36 +0000

Italianate Front Garden, Kent

The Design Brief

An Italianate-styled space, grand yet welcoming, with abundant planting and a profusion of colour, creating more structure and year-round interest to the front of the property.

The Challenge

An existing pathway of crazy paving, lined by overgrown lavenders and dated planting with lack of colour, was in poor condition. A number of mature hedges provided screening and had to be retained, along with some mature shrubs with a sentimental value.

The Design Solution

An archway leads up a central, sandstone pathway with standard roses flanking the sides, underplanted with lavender. Two formal, cushion-like lawns sit either side of the path, contrasting with the oxidised steel edging, gates and cherubs. Clipped topiary is planted through Cotswold chippings while relaxed planting encloses the garden with scent and colour.

Garden built by Elitescapes.

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Parterre Garden, Chislehurst

tcrawford — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 11:59:59 +0000

Parterre Garden, Chislehurst

The Design Brief

A traditional space that complements the house and its surroundings, is a joy to come home to every day, and feels as if it has always been there.

The Challenge

The house is tucked at the end of a narrow lane that also serves as an access road for a school. The plot is separated from the lane by a thin strip of land, dense with ash tree and scrub, obscuring the beauty of the house, but offering no real privacy from the hundreds of schoolchildren passing daily.

The Design Solution

An intricate, symmetrical grid of Old Stock bricks gives an immediate sense of permanence, and is edged on two sides with mature hedging. The length of the house is faced by a series of parterre beds, each with profuse cottage garden planting contained within dense myrtle hedging. Four specimen pear trees give height. Outside the hedging, the thin strip of land is transformed into a woodland walk that takes a meandering oak-edged path through forest flower and scent, allowing tantalising glimpses of the house but screening it effectively through several layers of planting.

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