Virtual Design Service
The brief here was to enhance an unused part of the garden, enhance privacy and create storage.
A contemporary and fresh planting scheme, understated and harmonious. The left hand side of the summerhouse is mostly shade. The right hand side benefits from afternoon sun. Worth noting this small area will provide pollen, nectar & fragrance by flowering for 12 months in succession.
BESPOKE DESIGN
Perfect for new builds or gardens with a serious lack of mojo. Every garden can be utterly transformed using the power of great planting. All aspects of your garden will be considered including sun levels, soil types and planting requirements.
This service ensures you get the best from your garden with year round colour and interest. Creating a bespoke spring and summer planting scheme and adding trees, shrubs and hedges to enhance privacy.
Designed to flower year round, easy to look after once established. An abundantly planted garden giving explosions of colour in all seasons is the single biggest contribution you can make to improve biodiversity supporting our amazing pollinators and other valuable wildlife. The best thing of all is a well planted border leaves no room for weeds. Endless beauty and less work - gardening does not get better than this.
We can supply all trees, shrubs and plants directly from growers and are guaranteed to be cheaper than retail.
What's included
Soil PH & Composition Analysis
Soils range from acidic to alkaline and choosing plants that love your soil is critical. Soil composition can vary between different areas of the same garden depending on surrounding trees and drainage. There are plants that will adore any garden condition, so don't shoehorn in plants and hope for the best. Damp, shady areas well planted with dramatic jungle planting can make it the most attractive part of the garden. There are plants that will flower their heads off for months in dry, stony soil and need nothing in return. Get the right plants in the right place and they look after themselves. Planting to suit your soil is crucial.
Planting Style
Different planting styles suit different gardens. Styles range from strong architectural planting to soft romantic cottage garden schemes.
Sun & Shade Analysis
Full Sun Plants do best with 6 hours plus of direct sunshine. If they are in a shadier area they will grow leggy and lean over trying to catch the rays. Semi sun plants love to get 3 to 6 hours of direct sunshine or all day dappled shade. If they get more than this they can collapse and wilt and need constant watering to keep them alive. Most gardens have a mixture of full sun, semi sun and full shade areas. Gardens always look amazing when the planting is co-ordinated to harmonise between all areas to give a really cohesive look.
Designing with Colour
The exciting bit! Choose from cool and classy lime green and whites combination, amazing when repeated throughout the whole garden. Or how about hot and vibrant magentas, with velvety plums and deep silky tangerine - yum! Colour schemes can be altered between spring and summer plantings meaning you can get really imaginative.
Spring Flowering Lasagne
A bespoke recipe of bulbs to suit your planting scheme. This will give six months of extra flowering from a bespoke Bulb Lasagne Recipe for your garden. Starting with the humble Crocus in February so essential for early bees, two months of Tulips by using a combination of Early, Mid & Late flowerers through to summer flowering of large Allium
Planting Choices
We use a combination of Plant Layering and 'Right Plant, Right Place' philosophy to create a long flowering successional border using Hardy Perennials. These are plants that can withstand our cold winters and return every year reliably. In addition we can look at great screening plants/trees to add privacy and create zones
Garden Makeover
Some gardens need a bit of a rethink to get the best out of them. This is particularly true for East or North facing gardens. Just because the patio is at the back door doesn't make it the best place to sit. Every garden has a sweet spot around which all other things should revolve. With gardens getting ever smaller it's essential to get the best from your valuable outdoor space.
Every garden can be transformed with clever design. We charge an agreed upfront fee rather than a percentage of total build cost. It doesn't need to be an expensive process. An illustrated sketch is often enough for landscapers to proceed rather than scaled drawings. Prices start from £189 and we always save you money on the cost of plants.
DESIGN BRIEF #1
This garden had no privacy from the house behind. The 6ft fence panels have been added in virtually as the existing fence was small and broken. The replacement of the fence has been agreed by the neighbour. Despite this the issue with privacy would not be solved. Also the patio at the back of the house was only sunny until 3pm and had no evening sun. With no children or pets to consider there was a strong desire to lose the lawn entirely.
DESIGN BRIEF #2
This existing patio is East facing and loses sun by afternoon. The owner has mobility issues and never used the garden beyond the existing paving.
DESIGN BRIEF #3
This garden was designed twice. In the first design shown below the design brief was to capture more evening sun and so a new patio was to be added closer to the fence to capture more West facing light. The fence to be painted charcoal to help it disappear and the planting chosen to be low maintenance Mediterranean style to suit the gritty low fertile soil and plants that wouldn't require much watering or care once established.
DESIGN
The addition of a small tree solved some privacy issues, and will provide further screening as it matures, but it's the summer house that has transformed this garden. Providing privacy when seated at the new patio area without casting shade. Lighting and power will be added to the summer house to encourage evening use. The addition of two patios gives space for outdoor dining and sunbathing. The remaining grass will be replaced with gravel for low maintenance.
DESIGN
Wide, smooth but textured paving gives safe access to an open and accessible seating area. This client loves flowers and wanted to be surrounded with colour and fragrance. Maintenance is made easier by this planting structure being set away from the fence allowing access from all sides. No kneeling is required for plant maintenance. The dense planting reduces the scope for weeds to take hold. These plants are hardy perennials meaning they disappear in winter and reappear late Spring. They are underplanted with a spring bulb lasagne meaning this planter flowers its socks off from February to October. It's visible from the house so will give an enormous pleasure to the owner.
DESIGN
The original design was amended as the owners got a puppy! The requirement for the extra patio area remained but the need to retain more lawn area for the dog to play meant that the original planting design was removed. The patio was also moved further up towards the back fence to increase the grassy area. Planting was changed to be more robust but with some gorgeous planters filled with French Lavenders and underplanted with a lasagne of Alliums the Provence vibe is still captured.
Your garden is unique
We offer a wide range of services to ensure your garden works for your individual requirements. Having a garden is an enormous asset. Unlocking the potential and making a space you will cherish and enjoy for years is an investment that will reward you year after year. It can be confusing to know which service you need which is why we always offer a free consultation. See what All Year Bloom can do for your garden