A low-maintenance garden
A low-maintenance garden with impact and style
Budget: £9,000
A weekend cottage, until recently choked by overgrown conifers, has been reinvigorated with an easy-to-maintain contemporary garden that offers a new entertaining area and restores the views of the local cathedral.
Minimal use of hard landscaping leaves the space to be delineated by green architecture of hedging, block planting of evergreens with grasses for contrast and a line of the wonderful Himalayan birch Betula utilis var. jacquemontii 'Doorenbos'. The use of plants in this way brought the garden to rapid completion and within the limited budget.
The garden, shown here before construction, during the work, one month and one year after planting, will continue to develop over the next three years to produce a graphic and modern environment with a planting of scented perennials, climbers and culinary herbs. Grasses are backlit by the evening sun and seedheads contribute to long-term structure in the winter months.
