Family Garden
Hampshire

Our clients wanted a garden to enjoy with family and friends, for entertaining and having fun. A new swimming pool and pool house was an opportunity to make thoughtful changes so the garden connected the recently extended house and its garden with the wider landscape beyond. 

Set in a clearing, surrounded by ancient woodland, we discovered this large garden sat on a ley line or line of energy. Part of its grassland was also designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Both required care so the former could be ‘honoured’ and the latter protected and improved.

Our masterplan creates an easy flow, sensitively marrying existing garden elements with new spaces, moods and atmospheres: a competitive formal croquet lawn, a sunny swimming pool garden, a productive potager for vegetables and cut flowers, a cool connecting courtyard garden, a species rich wildflower meadow, a new native hedge to mark the ley line and invite the energy of the natural world into the garden. Our design includes something for everyone in the family and, importantly, for wildlife.

The downland context is reflected in the choice of natural local materials and inclusion of natives and near natives within the ornamental planting.  This softens the formality of the design and blurs the edges to the views beyond.

The garden will be planted this year and it will be exciting to see it grow and mature.