West Sussex Village House

In some ways a difficult site with the large village house close to the road in the north east corner of an 11 acre plot with three acres of garden. But, in other ways a gift thanks to an inspirational view. The main concern was to remove the car parking area from the the middle of the site and to create a garden around the house with some intimacy but at all times remembering the greatest asset – the view. The site had previously been acres of lawn with a large gravel drive dissecting it. Shortening the drive and making the parking area to one side of the house enabled the creation of an intimate terraced garden around the house using old york stone and old brick pavers with a plethora of planting beds abundantly planted with rich jewel coloured perennials and roses. Structure was provided in the form of evergreen hedging and clipped yew, laurel, pittosporum and bay balls.

The previously cramped pool area (necessitated by the previous location of the parking) was given space but privacy through the planting of a hornbeam hedge. A cooler planting pallet of white and green was used in the large border adjacent to the pool. The terraced garden leads via york stone steps within the grass bank to a semi circular formal lawn and then to a more informal grass area planted with native trees and seeded with wild flowers. Further interest is added with the creation of a large sweeping curved bank in the lee of the hills and an historic pond was renovated and its surrounds cleared of large numbers of laurels and replaced with native trees and shrubs.