French style Family garden

Kingston upon Thames

Designer Wendy Stokes

Landscaper Bloomin’ Marvellous

The brief was to create a family garden reminiscent of a French holiday, with the sound of running water, the warm tones of sandy limestone and the scrunch of gravel underfoot. They wanted lush plants visible from inside the house, seating in the sun, comfy sofas, ambient lights and bags of character. The garden materials are to be natural and earthy with gentle tumbled edges that can only be found on natural stone and a larger curved lawn for their new baby.

Design Rationale

The garden was already full of character with a curved York stone path and plenty of mature planting. The new design creates a French style family garden with three different usble areas that flow seemlessly from one to the other, whilst retaining many of the lovely existing features.

A small terrace outside the house in beautiful honey limestone is edged with plants gently cascading over the edges, and leads to an outdoor lounge enclosed by soft plants laid to tumbled limestone cobbles in a herringbone pattern. A globe ball with trickling water sits on a plinth on a gravel bed surrounded by plants and is audible and visible from both the house and lounging terrace. A beautiful vase shaped Amelanchier tree will give the water feature a pretty flowering backdrop and the plants will be soft, arching and structural to look good year round.

The existing curved York stone path and low brick raised bed are retained and modified to lead the user to a hidden dining area with a bistro table and chairs on a gravel bed nestled amongst plants and facing the larger lawn opposite.

To the rear the garden room has been painted a dark earthy green and clad with a scented white wisteria, whilst underneath an outdoor cooking area with Green Egg BBQ and comfy chairs are secreted under the hanging plants.