Garden Design Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
A large, family garden design for an historic house in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
The garden design Brief
This large garden is attached to a beautiful historic house in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. The young couple who own the property wanted to rejuvenate the garden, including bringing back into use an overgrown, inaccessible part of the lower garden. The garden design brief included a large swimming pool and terrace for entertaining, a large lawn and soft planting, a children’s play area and a vegetable garden. Additional parking was also a key part of the garden design brief because the house is on the green in Chalfont St Giles making access and parking difficult. The house’s prominent position and heritage status the front garden design was also important because the general public have full view of the front garden.
The garden design explained
The garden design includes a large swimming pool, an outdoor shower, and pool room with changing and toilet facilities. A curved terrace with Porcelain paving wraps round the rear access and connects the house with the pool terrace which incorporates a large dining area and a full outdoor kitchen. The clients wanted a Moroccan theme, so an outdoor Moroccan tile was selected for the kitchen backsplash and has also been used on the built in bench seat and gas fireplace in the cosy seating area attached to the pool terrace. The whole garden is wrapped in herbaceous borders and also features a timber pergola, and bespoke steel arches that span a secret pathway. There is a large children’s play area with a tree fort, swing, climbing wall, and football nets. The vegetable garden has raised timber beds and a large greenhouse, and is surrounded with timber batten screens. A borehole provides irrigation for the garden and a heat pump heats the pool. The garden design included a new access from the lane running up the side of the property, with a resin-bound gravel driveway and parking for four cars to the side of the house. The front garden design includes a resin-bound gravel driveway, and formal parterre planting.
The garden design challenges
The house has heritage status and the planning consent for the garden design took almost a year. A footpath running through the property caused issues with boundary placement. The planning process involved multiple council departments, including heritage, and highways planners. Various garden plans and documents were created to serve the specific requirements of each department. Several old wells were discovered during the garden construction process and had to be made safe. Also, during garden construction some ancient wiring and sewerage pipes were uncovered and had to be removed safely. The house is not set square in the garden, so the design looked rather asymmetrical until everything was complete because it’s important to design the garden square to the house, so resolving the asymmetry was key to creating a coherent garden design.
The planting design
The planting design links the historic house with the contemporary design of the garden, blending the old with the new using a planting scheme that echoes the period of the house. The planting design features plants for year-round colour and interest. The planting has a backbone of shrubs and trees to give structure and winter interest using evergreens and plants that flower at different times of the year. Scentwd plants were carefully chosen to ensure as much scent as possible throughout the year. The highlight of this planting scheme is undoubtedly the Summer when the borders explode in a riot of colour and texture. Herbaceous plants include Salvia, Heleniums, Phlox, Verbena bonariensis, Geraniums, Heuchera, and Sedum. There is a herb bed featuring culinary herbs for use in the outdoor and indoor kitchen. Grasses thread through the planting design and provide height, texture, movement and Winter interest. Grasses used include Miscanthus, Calamagrostis, Penisetum, and Stipa. The plant were planted in drifts and groups were repeated to presemt a cohesive picture. The pergola, arches and garden walls were planted with climbing plants and wall shrubs including Wisteria, Clematis, climbing Roses, Honesuckly, Jasmine, Ceanothus and Itea. The planting scheme has an irrigation system and water is supplied by a borehole.
Before
After
Using the whole space
The garden design makes use of the whole garden, separating it into different areas each with its own distinct purpose. The garden was divided without closing off the spaces, keeping each area light, open and inviting. Consideration was given to the light levels each garden area at different times of day. Path and arches were added to give a natural journey around the garden and encourage people to explore the whole garden.
Gardening
The clients are keen gardeners and a large part of the brief was to maintain a countryside feel to the planting design and provide opportunities for gardening. There is also a dedicated vegetable garden with a large greenhouse and raised beds where adults and children can grow vegetables and flowers for cutting.
Outdoor cooking and entertaining
The garden was designed to enable outdoor living for as much of the year as possible. The large terrace has plenty of room for dining and lounging and features a 6m x 5m swimming pool heated by a heat pump and a full outdoor kitchen with a sink, refrigerator, barbeque and bar seating. Attached to the pool terrace is a built-in bench seating area with Moroccan tiling and a gas fireplace.
A children's garden
The clients have two young children and their needs were a large part of the garden design brief. A formerly overgrown area at the bottom of the garden was transformed into a kids play area with a tree fort, a climbing wall, swings and a large lawn for football. The swimming pool area is also safe and accessible for children and clearly visible from the house so that parents can keep an eye on children from the kitchen.