Affordable Design at Hampton Court

It’s the perennial problem for garden designers – the ‘phone rings and a charming potential client makes an enquiry about having their garden designed.  After a short discussion of their needs and what the designer can do, the question of the available budget crops up. 

‘Oh, I thought something between £1500 and £2000.’

This is the point at which the designer has to gently bring the enquirer to an understanding of the realities involved.  The bald fact is that having a garden designed is a purely elective expense, and one that is pretty much a luxury.  It is easy to see why people think they can get gardens for these sums – plants are not hugely expensive, and you can buy a lot of them for £2000, but this takes no account of the labour involved in creating hard-landscaping, materials, VAT or, at the bottom of the heap of priorities, the designer’s fee.  The sum the client has in mind is, undoubtedly, a lot of money, but it is simply insufficient for what they have in mind.  It is possible to transform a small garden by spending this amount wisely on plant material, but to create the longed-for ‘room outside’ takes far more in the way of cash. 

‘But Alan Titchmarsh used to do it for £500 over a weekend!’  Well, anyone with an understanding of the true cost of things knows that he didn’t.

The new show garden category, ‘Low Cost, High Impact Gardens’  at Hampton Court Flower Show this year is thus to be welcomed – four gardens built to three different budgets give an inkling of what is achievable on the relatively modest, in design terms, budgets of £7000, £10000 and £13000.  I know, these are still big sums, but in terms of what it allows you to achieve, they are minimal outlay.  A couple of years ago I designed a courtyard garden for a house that cost at least a million pounds but that had a tiny, neglected garden.  By careful design it was possible to give the client a beautiful outdoor space for about £14000, of a size that would have cost them a further quarter of a million had it been inside the house.  When looked at in this way, the outlay begins to look like not only good value, but essential expenditure if you have the resources to spare.  Forget the immense improvements in the way you will live and experience your home – even in terms of the returns on reselling it’s a no-brainer.

But if you are having a garden designed and built, where does all the money go?  The expenditure is largely in the creation of the hard landscaping – the paving, decking, pergolas and walls all soak up contractor days and materials, and while it’s not possible to pare down the day-rate of a landscaper, it is possible to make the design faster to implement.  This is where it actually pays to engage a designer: savings are there to be made, and a good designer knows how to achieve this.  Take time though, to research a designer you have confidence in – I’m a firm believer that good design doesn’t have to be any more expensive than bad.

Rule number 1 – stick to straight lines and right angles.  Anything involving curves or odd angles immediately hikes the price, as such features are trickier to set out on the ground and more time-consuming to build.

Rule number 2 – limit the changes in level where possible.  Digging out and carting away waste, or making ground up by importing extra material is a luxury where it isn’t strictly necessary.

Rule number 3 – if you have to compromise to achieve a budget, consider changes in materials or creative use of cheap and readily available materials first.  The overall layout of the design should be the last thing to be modified, because if the designer has done a good job, this layout will be the optimal solution for the site.

So, back to Hampton Court and the Low Cost gardens.  Well, on a day of pouring rain you don’t linger too long on the details, but the first thing that struck me about all of these was that they looked amazing.  Show gardens occupy a strange cultural niche, because they always look their best, but these could, at a glance, have stood up to many more expensive gardens.  The budgets assume that a garden has boundaries and that the plants bought will probably be smaller versions of those on display, allowed to grow up for a couple of years, but even so, the results are impressive.

'Our First Home, Our First Garden'

In at the lowest price was the garden created by Landform Consultants.  ‘Our First Home, Our First Garden’ designed by Nilufer Danis had a sunken seating well (in flagrant contravention of Rule 2, tsk) surrounded by a lovely summer planting in blues and yellows.  I can’t imagine any first-time buyers not wanting to create something like this to show off their new pad.  The cost of digging out had been cleverly offset by the very creative use of cheap reclaimed scaffolding planks as retaining walls for the seating pit, steps and decking.  Gravel, always a good cost-effective choice for a semi-durable surface, formed the floor of the pit, and the budget had even stretched to a shelf/woodstore supporting an outdoor heater.  I’d say this definitely provided the template for good, affordable design for a couple setting up home – the planting implied an interest in gardening as a hobby rather than as a mere backdrop to life out-of-doors, and provided a good range of wildlife friendly plants.  A couple of semi-mature trees brought height and presence to the planting, and if you are establishing a garden from scratch it’s always worth splashing out on just one big plant like this to give a sense of permanence to the whole.

'Our First Home, Our First Garden'

In the £10000 category Richard Wanless of Twigs Gardens had created ‘A Compromising Situation’.  I’m not sure what the title refers to exactly, but the conceit here is that the garden is one in a Victorian terrace, the residents of which can pass through each other’s plots.  Though this is a far-from-normal arrangement in my experience, it gave an opportunity to create a seating area secluded from the gravel path, screened by hedges of different heights and a timber arbour.  The paths and terrace area were paved in stone, and the inevitable expense of this offset with areas of (cheap) grass.  The lie of the path added interest to the design, and  a bit of extra width to a seating area.  If space and/or budget are limited, finding ways in which necessary pathways can contribute to other areas is a good trick.  There was scope in the budget here for a few little ornamental touches – a screen of curling steel reinforcing rods evoked the croziers of new fern leaves, and the risers of the steps were made of rough stone - while this wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice for an urban Victorian terrace, it’s an indication of the level of detail it is possible to achieve with this degree of funding.  The planting, less expansive than in the first garden, nonetheless achieved a good balance with the other elements of lawn and paving.

 

'A Compromising Situation'

The first of two gardens in the £13000 category,  ‘live outdoors’ by Roger Smith for Garden House Design used very simple shapes – a square deck big enough to put a dining table on, covered with a clever arbour and crisp paving in the path were all surrounded by the type of planting that looks great in an urban setting – a limited palette of plants linked by form and colour, with plenty of softening foliage, bamboo for screening  and one or two knock-your-socks-off specimens.  In this case the specimens were tree ferns which do look amazing although you need to check your supplier’s credentials if you are investing in these plants – I always worry that they have been uprooted from virgin Tasmanian forests when I see them decorating a courtyard in the UK.  This garden had some nice design touches that illustrate my point that good design doesn’t have to be expensive:  the step risers were made of three paving slab sections put together – this didn’t mean much until you noticed the uprights of the arbour, made of three laths of timber to each face, or the overhead beams constructed in the same way.  It’s this sort of detail that can really pull a design together, giving the garden a coherent feel.  The beams were a real designer’s touch – open at the top they acted as channels for planting which spilled over in a curtain – a neat way to soften the structure without using climbers.  The budget even ran to a wood-fired oven and a couple of planters.

'live outdoors'

The final garden was ‘Summer In The Garden’ by Mike Harvey for Arun Landscapes.  Another design centred on a seating space, this garden also had a budget of £13000.  A Yorkstone crazy-paved terrace with an outdoor chimney stack surrounded by a good mix of shrub and perennial planting created a seating area submerged in vegetation.  Again, the overhead plane was defined by timber, treated much more simply in this case, with the presumed-to-exist boundaries rough-cast rendered then painted a vibrant yellow.  This is a great way to introduce some drama to a garden for very little outlay, and through your choice of colour can produce just about any mood you wish.  The feel here was very much of the Mediterranean – an olive tree and pencil cypresses underplanted with santolina and lavender don’t look at their most natural under leaden skies, but with the sunny yellow walls the whole certainly brightened up a gloomy summer day.

'Summer In The Garden'

So, do these gardens offer a realistic goal for those trying to establish new gardens on a budget?  Very definitely – for me the most important aspect in each case was the way in which the design process had been used to minimise unnecessary costs, and I do think this is where it is worth getting design advice.  The principle of using cheaper materials to deliver the design is a good one and if you are hands-on with construction  you can save thousands of pounds in landscaper fees, but unless you are really confident and experienced, with plenty of free time to devote to your project,  it is probably worth stumping up for a professional.   A bit of patience allows you to buy smaller plants that will establish quickly and fill the space in a couple of years, but what these gardens really show is that getting the long-term design details correct at the start is the key to a successful garden – practical, good-looking and, most of all, a place you want to be.

Paul Ridley Design

The Natural Look

The desire to have a little piece of nature gets stronger among garden owners and makers.  I have written before that I think the deep need we seem to have at present for gardens and landscapes that evoke natural plant communities and wild places is in part a guilty response to the horrors that we, as humans, visit on the environment in other arenas.  Such landscapes may be our way of making some small recompense for the over-use of the planet.

An unmanaged meadow

The irony is that to create the multi-flowered pictorial appearance of the modern meadow requires a lot of work and intervention.

The weedy ground in an olive grove

Unimproved agricultural settings can offer a template for these landscapes - the weedy ground in orchards, vineyards and olive groves is almost a matrix through which the trees emerge, but is not necessarily an attractive backdrop in its own right.  However, where plant communities have had time to develop over long periods of time it is possible to see a large variety of plant species in a stable community.

The flowering meadow in a vineyard - late spring

To create a flowering meadow from scratch, with a good percentage of forbs (the flowering plants rather than grasses) requires the soil to be, generally, impoverished.  This can be done over a long period by repeated cutting and removal of grass - the quick solution is to scalp the area, removing topsoil.  In doing so, the grasses are deprived of their required nutrients and the tougher flowering plants have space to grow.  Eventually the initial seeding will settle down to a stable community of flowers within the grass matrix.

Natural plant communities may not be very mixed or attractive

A short-term meadow can be created by ploughing then seeding with a chosen wildflower mix, including grasses.  The meadow will flower impressively in the first year, but after this the number of flowering plants will rapidly decrease as the grasses out-compete them.

A seeded meadow can make a spectacular show in the early years

The team at the University of Sheffield (Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough) experimenting with pictorial meadow mixes will have their work tested to destruction this year, with millions of people seeing and experiencing their work at the Olympic Park in the summer.  Their seed combinations are in no way reflective of any particular meadow community - they put together combinations of attractive plants that suit the setting and aspect, and which give a plausibly natural feel when established.  Over several seasons natural selection takes over and some varieties decline in favour of others, but such is the nature of these dynamic plant communities.

Plant communities in a matrix of grass can use ornamental plants when carefully managed

Paul Ridley Design

2012: New horizons...

This year is shaping up to be a highly productive, challenging and inspiring one.  With many initiatives currently under way - in both professional and personal spheres - it's getting a bit difficult to keep track of everything.  However, it's these periods of change and development that keep life interesting, and open up new opportunities.

With a number of projects at the build stage I will be profiling a few different gardens in the coming months, but am starting 2012 with a project for a cottage in south Oxfordshire.  The clients are having the ground floor remodelled to include a new, two-storey oak-and-glass extension.  The challenge of the site, which slopes back towards the house, is to provide a series of interconnected terrace areas, each of sufficient size to be useful on its own, but together providing a fluid and flexible arena for entertaining larger groups. 

Here, three terrace areas on two different levels wrap around the new extension, with a gravelled area, capable of being used for playing boules or acting as 'overflow' terrace, form the areas of hard landscaping near to the house.  The upper garden retains a large area of lawn for childrens' play, with a line of fruit trees installed to act as a screen but also to form a backdrop to a possible future vegetable garden acessed by the pathway, which will then run through the middle of the productive area.  The terraces and lower garden are screened from the lawn by staggered blocks of evergreen hedging and perennial planting to keep footballs out of the sitting areas, while areas of mixed perennial planting are brought down to the very bottom of the garden, providing scent and visual interest close to the house and arrival zone.

The project is at tender stage, and with committed clients I anticipate a quick decision and some serious earth-shifting in the spring!

Paul Ridley Design

Nursery Stories

A key relationship for any garden designer is that with a trusted and reliable nursery.  Plant supply is a dark art, subject to its own seasonal oscillations that are sometimes at odds with what is going on in the garden year, and the advice and support of talented and knowledgeable plantspeople who are also able to supply healthy stock can make the difference between a successful scheme and one which is merely acceptable.

Orchard Dene Nursery near Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire, run by Chris and Toby Marchant is one such.  This is not a retail nursery - stock is grown for wholesale supply to designers and landscapers, including those at the top of the field in the UK.  Calling in on any particular day you are likely to see plant orders assembled for the likes of Andy Sturgeon, Tom Stuart-Smith and Anthony Paul - a roll call of the notable names in our profession. 

It's no surprise that these people come here for their plants - the quality and range is terrific, with every plant on the list 'road-tested' for its garden-worthiness and contribution to a planting.  Chris and Toby have built an enviable reputation for quality and regularly supply plants for the most demanding arena of all, the show gardens, putting their wares under the scrutiny of the harshest judges in the horticultural world.  The plants I used in my own garden, supplied mainly in 9cm pots, have grown away brilliantly this season - it is hard to believe that the planting was only a few weeks old when I photographed it for my website.

The list is particularly strong on plants and groups popular in the 'New Perennial' school of plant design - large, robust perennials with good form and habit that could easily have come from the wild.  Improved forms rarely stray too far from this ideal - overbred plants with their attendant problems don't seem to feature here.  There is a good selection of grasses, particularly varieties of Miscanthus, to go with Persicaria, Salvia, Eupatorium, Helenium and Rudbeckia, amongst many others.  The catalogue also offers great advice on plant combinations, more than one of which has found its way into my garden.

If you live too far distant to make use of Orchard Dene then hopefully you will have an equivalent nearby - the world of horticulture is full of talented, committed and helpful people, ready and willing to assist.

Paul Ridley Design

Planting with Style

 

In a garden designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole in south Oxfordshire, sweeps of naturalistic planting merge together to form a plausible community of wild plants - plausible, but not genuine, and certainly not wild.

The planting is beautiful, however. Here, Bradley-Hole has employed his grid system, with square beds of perhaps four metre dimension separated by gravel paths. The planting is so dense that the pathways become visible only when you are looking directly along them, and each square of the grid echoes its neighbours in the choice of plants. Dynamism and variety are introduced almost mathematically - the proportions of each type of plant change with each bed, and select additions subtly bring new colours or forms to the overall pattern.

Elsewhere in the garden, a fringe of massed grasses and huge Persicarias along the boundary picks up the theme of these plants which runs through the planting as a whole, and a mown circle of grass allows for rough-grass planting of spring bulbs around its perimeter. The terrace, raised above the level of the garden, is fringed by a tall bank bearing swathes of different Persicarias and more grasses - looking at this head on gives the impression of a huge pointillist screen, ranged in colours of rust, plum and tawny yellow.

Some find this pattern of planting somewhat 'spotty' - too many small groupings of plants (often in fact single plants) creating, for them, a hectic mess of plant material.  This is highly skilled design, however - although the plantings cannot be read easily at distance, closer inspection reveals the rhythm built through repeated forms, closely-related varieties of the same plant and the same colours, appearing in the foliage and flowers of completely different species.  I find the style deeply satisfying - a creative response to the environment that suggests wild places and natural communities of plants through highly knowledgeable design.

Paul Ridley Design