Earth Angels Landscapes had been commissioned by a couple, who had restored a bungalow in Giffnock and had now turned their attention onto the front and back garden, which were both in much need of attention.
The front garden driveway was too narrow to park and open the car doors, the paths of old concrete 3/2s were rocky and cracked, and the planting and lawn had seen better days.
The back garden was much the same, cracked and uneven paving, an old rickety fence, large puddled areas resulting from poor drainage, and multiple levels with no adequate space to sit out and relax.
Leonard is a chef who loves to barbecue and chill out at the end of a busy shift, and Viv has lots of nieces and nephews who love to visit. Neither of them had much knowledge of gardening and plants, so any plants added to the design would have to be easy for them to manage, and with a little tutorial on their after care, they would be able to enjoy their new garden.
Our plans were to build a large patio area built from sandblasted Indian Sandstone, for a spacious area to relax and weather permitting cook outdoors. We installed wall mounted patio heaters in a secluded section of the patio close to the house for the cooler summer evenings. We set about clearing the back and front garden of all hard standings and old fencing with a mechanical excavator, and then set to work on creating a privacy screen around the back garden.
Drainage issues were addressed, and the levels of the back garden were split into 2 levels, with a wrap round planted area separating the two. This allowed me to add some detailed planting of cooking herbs and low shrubs, that could easily be seen from the patio. We added a large multi stem corydline as a focal point of this area. In the lower area of the garden we set out a new lawn, with minimal planting of two espalier fruit trees to maximise the lawn area.
A small patio area with bamboo, and some low flowering shrubs surrounded a small patio area, ideally suited for morning coffee in the sunshine. For the front garden, we re-shaped the entrance to open it up, with a new lawn, some uniform shrub planting to give a more architectural feel, then laid some granite cropped setts to define the shrubs beds, beautiful new steps around the front door, then planted a large phyllostachs nigra bamboo, under planted with some seasonal interest. Cotswold buff gravel added to the driveway area draws your eye into this simple but effective design.
