COUNTRY GARDEN

BASSINGBOURN, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

This half acre garden surrounded by fields offered a lot of potential to fulfil the clients’ requirements of a wildlife friendly space, with multiple seating/entertaining areas, a pond with cascading water, a wildflower area as well as a separation between vegetable and ornamental garden, including screening the large greenhouse.

The design successfully incorporated existing features and materials and creatively exploited the garden topography, unifying the different areas by using the same materials throughout (green oak, Yorkstone boulders, railway sleepers, gravel), while maintaining a close relationship with the house and the surrounding environment.

The soft landscaping took into consideration the clients’ desired plants, the existing trees and shrubs, the garden orientation, exposure and soil type (chalk), as well as the style of the newly created areas, delivering biodiversity with lots of pollinator-friendly plants.

The new layout now comprises four very different seating/entertaining/relaxing areas, each with their unique characteristics, as well as additional boulder seaters by the pond to quietly enjoy the sound of water.

We were hugely impressed by both the design and the execution.

The design brought in ideas we had not even considered, and the planning and preparation on Cristina’s behalf were considerable. She turned a rather curious mound of gravel we inherited into a rockery and waterfall (beautiful Yorkstone rocks/boulders personally chosen and brought down from Huddersfield) and created an oak-pillared fan screen and seating area around an existing greengage tree.

The management of the execution of her design was hands on but unobtrusive from our point of view. Day by day it just got done.

We love being in our garden with all the differing aspects and viewpoints Cristina has created in only half an acre.

We can’t wait for next year when the planting will be more established. The garden let nature in and allows us to feel enveloped in the scents - a key theme of the garden brief - and sounds of nature from waterfall to birdsong.

As totally satisfied clients, we are very happy to endorse Cristina’s garden designs.

Fiona and Perry L, Bassingbourn

Before and after pictures