”Absolutely thrilled with the garden.”

Chilterns gravel garden

March 2025

”The design absolutely nailed our objectives.”

Date: March, 2025

Location: Wrap-around, resilient gravel garden of a Chilterns family home.

Client Brief: Desire to replace the lawn which surrounded the house with a garden which could be enjoyed all-year round from within the kitchen providing a place to sit, have a coffee, walk and enjoy. The design should deliver an impressive entrance to the house and link the house, pond, wildflower meadow and front garden together coherently.

Site: 1/3rd acre, gently sloping site wrapping around the modern, contemporary detached family home

Design Concept: The front garden design takes its inspiration from the flowing Ranunculus vegetation forms found within the local chalk streams. The flowing design leads you through the loose, naturalistic planting along gravel pathways. Drought tolerant, pollinator friendly planting thrives within the open gravel conditions. Places to sit and relax soaking up the fragrant and colourful planting. The gravel garden grounds the modern home within the landscape. The planting is resilient, colourful, fragrant and pollinator friendly providing year-round interest. Native multi-stem trees accentuate vistas and views across the rolling Chiltern Hills.

”It’s a joy to walk around the garden.”

Discuss Your Project

Creating an Arrival Experience

The gravel garden wraps around the front of the house creating an impressive arrival experience. Multistem trees and raised borders create privacy and guide visitors towards the front door. The planting is low maintenance, resilient and will deliver year-round interest.
Celebrating the Local Landscape

The garden features an impressive, mature Oak tree which is coherently incorporated. A new terrace & steps lead from the front door straight into the gravel garden. Drought tolerant, resilient planting delivers, fragrance, colour and year-round interest. The garden links seamlessly with the rolling Chiltern Hills beyond.
Panoramic views from inside

Central to the brief was delivering an amazing view from within the house and this is delivered through new planted raised beds planted in a naturalistic, loose and flowing style. The old lawn is replaced with beautiful, flowing perennial planting.

Before

A wrap around lawn surrounded the house with the occasional shrub to add interest. The lawn merged into an existing wild flower meadow and then a nature pond. There was limited access into the garden from the front door.
The Build

Experienced local builders levelled the site, removed and stored the existing top soil, prepared the ground, built the pathways, steps and raised beds over a 4 week period. Large amounts of gravel were added into the soil to break up the clay and create the ideal growing medium for the drought resistant planting scheme.
The Planting

Over 2500 plants were required for the scheme supplied from reputable local nurseries. An essential part of the process is laying out the plants in accordance with the planting plant and making on site changes based on designer experience. Mature multistem trees add height, volume and frame vistas through the garden.

The Inspiration

The unique vegetation shapes, structure and organisation of the rare chalk stream bed is the design inspiration for the gravel garden. It is the Ranunculus penicillatus (Chalk stream Water Crowfoot) which gives the river bed its distinctive appearance.
Evolving the Design

Bold asymmetrical shapes move across the space. Areas of loose planting with pathways of Flintstone gravel meandering through. Focal points and views amplified. Creating a meaningful journey around the house.
Grounded in the landscape

I believe deeply that a garden must be grounded in the landscape within which it sits. Achieving this is a key part of the design process and essential for the garden to feel ‘right.’ This garden flows and undulates, is loose and open just like the rolling Chilterns Hills.