Contemporary Garden, Surrey

We designed this garden for a family who wanted to enjoy life outdoors all year round, with plenty of space to relax and planting that provides an ever-changing display of colour and interest.

Drawing on traditional materials and techniques to complement the Arts & Crafts-inspired house, we created a series of curving Yorkstone steps and tiered borders for the front garden, combining a variety of finishes to add textural interest, and bordered by eye-catching Yew balls and a soft planting palette to form a calm, welcoming entrance.

We returned in 2024 to work alongside the clients architect who were appointed to design a new gym. The new building needed to work with the landscape and minimize changes to the established planting. The architect detailed carefully the doors, windows and views into the garden when working out and we ensured those views were beautiful. Final new planting was completed in autumn 2024 and is establishing well. The new gym can be seen in the last image with the new planting around it to help settle it into this landscape.

From here, a connecting path in a different blend of the same traditional materials is edged with mounded forms of shaggy grasses and further clipped Yew balls, creating a rhythmical journey to the main garden where elements of the planting are repeated, to connect the two spaces.

A subtle planting palette including geranium, nepeta and phlomis, leads to the main seating area where an open pergola in western red cedar provides a place to enjoy the garden in all seasons. Built with its own outdoor kitchen and with a woodland canopy of imposing Scot’s pines behind it, the area provides a dramatic focal point to the garden.

A cooling water feature wraps round the main terrace to reflect the sky and add a sense of calm to the space. We used rough textured boulders contrasted with the smooth paving and brick detailing to add further interest to the terrace area.

Images Copyright Richard Bloom