MULTI-LEVEL FAMILY GARDEN, WOKING SURREY

This garden project was an interesting engineering challenge. There is a 10 metre fall from the top of the garden, at the front of the house, to the bottom of the garden at the back. The client’s brief for the front garden was to create a new planted garden outside the front door, a larger drive with parking and garaging space. The back garden required the removal of an old swimming pool, the creation a new entertaining area and to plan a new area for a swimming pool and summerhouse. Additionally, there was an old Rose Garden to renovate.

Our solution necessitated the construction of a number of high retaining walls and several sets of steps, which lead down through the various new levels of the garden. The front garden now has a new area of planting between the driveway and the front door, a lower level near the utility room with a tap for washing the dog and several more parking spaces. The upper level of the back garden entertaining space has a formal rectangular lawn, sofa seating space, a barbecue and dining space and a special area for table tennis. The views from this level look down towards the new swimming pool area, summerhouse and sports lawn – all neatly hidden away from view from the house. A series of separate retaining walls and planted terraces gave the opportunity for planting a very wide range of shrubs and perennials. The house’s architectural origins are in the Arts and Crafts era so in many parts of the garden we introduced clay tile and brick detailing in the paving to echo this.

The old access steps to the Rose Garden had been damaged by building work and this area no longer had a direct link to the main garden. It was an interesting task to design and build a new set of steps and walls to match the original ones, complete with clay tile detailing on the piers.

The front garden has many shade tolerant plants like Rhododendrons and Azaleas, whereas the south facing back garden has a wide range of sun loving shrubs and perennials.