MY GARDEN
Starting from scratch Having opened her home to Nelmac Garden Marlborough’s ‘Starting from Scratch’ landscaping workshop, Sophie Preece learns that good design is about far more than planting plans. BY SOPHIE PREECE
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have dirt beneath my nails as I write this column. I also have aching arms, a twinge in my back–and the urge to head outside and pick up the spade again. Surely there’s another square metre of hard stony land to be chipped away at, filled with compost and occupied with a fruit tree or rose bush, and surely more shrubs to be lined up, measured, straightened, measured and straightened again. Instead, I glimpse over my shoulder every minute or two, admiring the work thus far, while remaining bemused that so very few flowers took so very many hours to plant. I’ve suddenly got lofty gardening aspirations for our little section in a shiny new subdivision, all of them seeded by a Nelmac Garden Marlborough landscaping workshop held here two days ago. It’s title, Starting from Scratch, seems fitting given the expanse of bare brown earth when workshop participants arrived. However, landscaping begins well before the plants go in, said landscape architect Jessica Staples, of Goom Landscapes, who designed the dining terrace, driveway and two small wooden decks already in place. She launched into advice on the tint in the concrete and the exact placement of cuts along it. We soaked up guidance on using tinted aggregate in the driveway, and learnt of Jessica’s detailed decking dimensions that considered the spaces required, as well as the impact on the section as a whole. Hers is a task that considers the broad strokes, with functionality, privacy and wind protection, for example, but also the finer details, knowing that such finessing can ‘turn a space from ho-hum to premium’. Jessica says landscaping is too often an afterthought in the building process, hastily tacked on at the end. However, thoughtful design of garden shape and structure, wooden decks, concrete patios and stone pathways, along with
TIPS Consider multi-use designs, like a barbecue/herb garden/beer cooler, or outdoor seating that is also storage By using wider concrete cuts and filling them with grout, you can achieve the look of tiles Local government websites can be useful to find old house plans and site plans Google Earth is also a good resource, especially with larger sites, and can give more context to your site and design Make sure you read your covenants before you buy
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screening fences, multi-use structures and appropriate plantings, can ‘elevate’ outdoor living and enhance the house as well , effectively extending the living space. In an ideal world, she would be called in at the same time as the client is meeting with the architect, to suggest how materials can be taken from indoors out, and exterior spaces devised for both functionality and beauty. So she’s puzzled by how often landscape architects are contacted only after the patios are poured and the mowing lines are in, with an expectation that planting alone can complete the look. For our section, she used hardscaping to make the most of the limited space, including a built-in barbecue area, with tubs of herbs inserted along the top bench. When you have guests over, you can pull out the herbs and replace them with empty bins to fill with ice and beer, she said. “It’s a nice way of being able to create multi-uses for spaces, especially when you are tight on room. But you also have a little herb spot, right out from the kitchen, with easy accessibility–the