Our clients owned a beautiful home in a prime position within the village of Great Ouseburn, near Boroughbridge. Despite the location and character of the property, the garden was completely unusable due to the steep slope directly beyond the rear of the house.

With no level space for seating or entertaining, and no obvious solution in sight, our clients began to consider moving in order to find a home with a garden they could enjoy.

Our initial visit focused on understanding the true constraints of the site. We were tasked with creating a design proposal that could introduce usable space while respecting the character of the house, the village setting and the existing levels

In a prime position in the village of Great Ouseburn, our clients had the perfect home, but it lacked usable space outside. Part of our role was not only to create space, but to specify materials and a layout that felt entirely in keeping with the location.

The Site & Brief

A full topographical survey formed the foundation of the design process, allowing us to understand the changes in level and create a practical, buildable solution. There was an existing mature Acer that our clients wanted to keep, so the rootstock here needed to be protected and brought into the garden design layout.

The key objectives were to:

• Create space to dine outside, cook, entertain and enjoy being in the garden with good access into the rear of the property
• Provide some screening from the driveway that enters the rear garden for access to the garage
• Maximise the use of the orientation of the house, to enable the new area to get the sun for most of the time
• Choosing materials that really worked with the site and its location
• Although hard landscaping was needed, we wanted this to still be close to nature and planting

Taking a walk around the village helped us to understand the unique way materials work well together. The garden needed to feel like a natural extension of Great Ouseburn, not something imposed upon it.

Solving the slope was the central challenge of this project. Choosing materials that felt authentic to the house and village while providing a robust solution to the level change was essential.

First off, we carried out a topographical survey to enable us to import all the heights we were dealing with to develop a design that could be delivered successfully.

Using 20 years of design and build experience; we create a suitable proposal that gave back the use of the garden to our clients. It’s important to add here that having the build knowledge we do, when we design any space, we have the expertise and knowledge that what we design, can be built successfully.

• Useable space right from the back door of the house, with access to the main parts of the garden was successfully created
• Material choices that worked with the house and its location
• Lighting shown on the plans helped integrate these successfully when it came to the build.
• Plenty of room for planting, and garden furniture
• Good access for garden maintenance so it becomes a good long-term garden
• An excellent build team that worked hard to create the vision we’d provided

Having a good relationship with clients is important to any garden design and build process. Here, our clients were involved at every stage of the design, material choosing and build.

We love a challenge, and enjoy working for clients and their private gardens, solving problems and creating gardens that work on a practical and aesthetic level.