These clients had bought an existing, unattractive, property on a private estate in Guildford and were replacing it with a lovely new traditional style home. We were was involved in designing the garden before the construction commenced and were on hand to help with minor amendments to the design as the work progressed. There were Tree Preservation Orders on a couple of trees but otherwise, the site was a blank canvas for design work.
The new design incorporated a good sized driveway, seating areas in different parts of the garden and strong lawn shapes. Screening along the boundaries was paramount, particularly from overlooking neighbour windows. Pleached Hornbeam trees were planted next to the fences in the back garden and these gave instant 3m high screening. In the front garden Portuguese Laurel hedging and deeply planted beds now give dense and colourful privacy. The paving is a combination of reclaimed York stone in the front garden and riven Limestone elsewhere. All planting is chosen to cope with heavy clay soil, with a palette of pinks, blues and white.
"We self built our own Arts & Crafts style house in Guildford in a conservation zone. After first demolishing a 60’s house, we were left with a blank canvas, apart from a couple of protected trees in the front garden and a few existing shrubs that survived the builders’ onslaught. Although keen gardeners, we were not skilled at garden design. So with some research we found and met Cherry Mills. She listened to our ideas of what we wanted to see in our garden and met us with plans on and off site.
Our design brief to Cherry was to create a Gertrude Jekyll inspired garden that would complement an Arts & Crafts house, albeit a new build. We like a garden that we can relax and entertain in but also are happy to get involved in as a project and a hobby.
As self builders we had some of our own team for the hard landscaping, however, Cherry organised the supply of plants and professional team of landscape gardeners.
We would highly recommend Cherry Mills Garden design to anyone wanting a professional garden design service that can be tailor-made to your requirements. "
