This garden is for a couple who wanted a more welcoming arrival at their house and a rear garden to better suit the needs of their growing family, interests and animals. They wanted to support wildlife and increase the biodiversity and sustainability of their home.

The existing front garden had beautiful spring bulbs but little interest for the rest of the year. I proposed a naturalistic planting scheme including native hedging and climbers to link tree canopies with the ground – key for wildlife. Shrubs and grasses provide structure and texture with perennials chosen to provide colour from spring to late autumn.

The existing rear garden was long, mostly lawn and felt exposed to neighbours on one side. The design creates a sequence of separate spaces: a lawn where the boys can still play football, but angled so that the pergola leading to a sunken firepit area is the centre of the view from the terrace, rather than their goal. Beyond the firepit area is a kitchen garden with fruit cage and an area for the chickens.

Trees have been added at the far end of the garden to provide a backdrop to the views from the house and to improve the garden’s sustainability with species that should live for 200-300 years providing valuable habitat and holding substantial amounts of carbon.