Beginning of August came and went, thought I hadn't got through and would receive a letter in post to confirm that. Got back in one day, one of the children said some funny women had phoned and would call back later...Got them to listen to a previous message on the answerphone and sure enough it was Rosemary Edwards, so waited nervously. Of course general emergency, the children always manage something, so ended up missing the call, and David taking it.
Rosemary congratulated me on getting through to the final, gave details of the next stage - brief design details, size of plot, what I was supposed to be doing, budget etc etc and said all info would be special delivered by the weekend. Needless to say when I got back I had loads of questions but David didn't have any answers, the pack was not received till the Monday, less than 3 weeks to get everything ready. It included some photos of the plot, and a short video - inspiring or what ????
My "clients" had a plot 12mx4m, budget £1,200. They like big potted plants, roses, lawn, pond/water feature, gravel, decking, low maintenance. They are an easy going couple who like entertaining and don't want a compost heap, basically that's all I got to know.
I did several concept drawings to try and think of something a bit different than the norm, but would still fit in a surburban garden, and was possible in 3 1/2 days.
I decided the garden needed breaking up so there was a sense of adventure so decided on a screen. I didn't want a formal look so went for curves, from there the pergola developed, a curved one is quite unusual I think. I had to then make it into a sunken area because of planning permission, everything has to be under 2m from dampcourse. I needed an entertainment area, which I decided consisted of the curved pergola and an area of gravel, which would also be home to several large potted plants - (as requested), this took up 1/3 of the garden.
The back area I wanted to be lush as a contrast to the gravel, the "client" had requested a lawn, having read that decided that as they were happy to cut the lawn weekly, they would be happy to tidy up in the winter if I put perennials in. I decided on the red and black colour scheme on the sunny side, as I feel this is quite a stunning combination, and my border at home always gets lots of positive comments. The other side is always in the shade, so felt a bog area + woodland planting would give the lush planting I required when mature.
I then had to put that on paper........the gravel area, pergola and planting came quite quickly, the lawn gave me some problems. I decided to mark out the area in my own garden to get the proportions right, and just to get a feel of the size of the plot.
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