I got a call last July from a lady called Cath in Oxfordshire who wanted her Thameside garden made over in order to look great for her daughter’s wedding in August this year. After checking with my team @ TS Landscapes, Tom said it was tight but doable…

This is about the design & making of a new garden…

Cath & her husband Ian were seeing other designers too as is often the way. I completely understand but it is nonetheless quite unnerving even after a career of over thirty years. When I went to see them after I had been commissioned, Cath told me she chose me as I would challenge her the most. I took it as a compliment :/ (spoiler she is delighted with the end result!)

This was the back garden when I first saw it last year. From this upper level area shown left below it slopes down quite dramatically to a tributary of The Thames river below which floods – a lot! Pic on right. It is a really large plot but was absolutely not fulfilling its potential. On the right behind that trellis fence is a kitchen garden & further across on the left was a complete waste of space with vast shrubs & grass dumps.

I rejigged my schedule in order to get this designed quickly & off we went.

Cath wanted a natural feel to suit the landscape beyond but did not want to change the very large terrace to the rear of the house which was a large rectangle. My design combines both the straight lines of that with an introduction of curves to blend with the landscape. This broadly waving path cuts through straight beds & links with a new curving evergreen hedge to screen the kitchen garden. I’ve opened the width of the garden up & moved the grass dump. I’ve introduced a large circular deck to replace the pretty tiny terrace they originally had & surrounded it with wild flower turf above flood level.

I removed this one tree from the main lawn as it was blocking the view together with these beds & a few self seeded specimens that weren’t really doing anything; apart from making a large portion of the garden dark, uninviting & unfriendly to most plants…

Designing a riverside garden is tricky as they flood & are often incredibly sunny throughout the summer so sun loving plants will obviously die when submerged. This garden thankfully is on two levels. The sunny & dry upper garden & the lower level beside the thames that floods. Easy & convenient separation thankfully.

My sketch below shows how the straight beds that are full of blousy – drought tolerant – Mediterranean plants are intersected by the proposed wavy path… I’ve softened the huge terrace too by adding more planting including kitchen herbs & some topiary for year round interest.

I didn’t have to change anything so Tom set to pricing it all up & we both went to nurseries sourcing trees. Below left Rupert @ Deepdale found these lovely weeping pears for us. Sourcing Pyrus salicifolia such as these with decent sized heads is very difficult – they usually arrive with pretty puny heads such as these on the right we were offered by another nursery.

The guys worked all through the winter in trying conditions including flooding @ lower level & fierce winds to produce what is now already a seriously beautiful garden…

Doesn’t it look romantic? we are all so pleased. It will soon have a marquee on the lawn & host a lovely wedding for Cath & Ian’s daughter. I’ll post more photos once that has happened & we can get in there without stressing anyone out!

There was originally one huge yew dome that set me thinking how I should include more for a fun aspect with year round interest. This cluster below actually hide a large manhole …

Cath sent me these photos last night as she is clearly delighted. So am I! Well done team TS Landscapes & thanks again to Cath & Ian for trusting me with this important project. At times like this I really love my job!

Apologies by the way for lack of posts but I’ve been swamped redesigning Bicester Village which as you might imagine is a lot. More on that later

All for now

Leading garden designer in Oxfordshire