Back Garden Renovation, Dalkeith

This was a beautiful mature garden, which had been developed by the clients over many years.  The layout included a number of separate lawns, planted beds and seating areas.  One of the lawns was located on a raised terrace to the rear of the back garden and its location was becoming a challenge from a maintenance point of view – the clients were tired of having to carry the lawnmower up a flight of stone steps every week to cut the grass!  The brief, therefore, was to remove the lawn and replace with shrub planting.

The solution:

Since the far end of the terrace gets sun almost all day long, and is quite a secluded spot, screened from the house and adjacent gardens by surrounding mature trees and shrubs, it is the ideal location for a small seating area.  The lawn here was replaced with a circular stone patio, to which the clients added a bench and table, providing an informal seating area in a sheltered, sunny spot.

We created a winding stone path to connect the terrace steps with the patio.  The path curves sinuously around existing mature shrubs to the front of the terrace.  This invites the visitor to explore this level of the garden, before enjoying views of the garden below from the new seating area. 

A mix of evergreen shrubs including Nandina and Ceanothus, along with some small conifers, filled the remainder of the space where the lawn had been.  Brightly coloured Hebe ‘Emerald Gem’ was repeated as punctuation points along the length of the stone path.  Some perennials and grasses, including Heucheras, were planted around the new patio area to soften the edges of the paving.

Now the clients can sit and relax with a cuppa on their new patio rather than having to worry about the length of the grass!