Winchester, Hampshire   

We were invited to reconsider the next chapter of this garden, to build upon its handsome framework and craft a design that looked to enhance its beauty in a thoughtful manner whilst capturing the artful influences of the clients. The approach is to touch lightly on the land, to develop the extended landscape into a rich and biodiverse grassland with copses of native trees and shrubs, beginning a future plan that would see the open pastureland becoming more engaged with the local environment. Areas closer to the house are to tread a fine line between the formal and informal, topiary encouraged to loosen and become less rigid in their form and plants allowed to self-seed and settle in areas less travelled. Materials are to be in keeping with the property, sympathetic and traditional, allowing only to delineate necessary routes and seating areas, leaving the soft landscaping to become the focus. Large planting beds will inject an emotive response to art and sculpture. Perennials will provide a key layer of seasonality that is absent amongst the current scheme, giving a new lease of life to a garden that has sat unchanged in its setting. An established orchard will be enhanced and rejuvenated, a chance to tend to the aged and plant new where there is space. The masterplan will be implemented over many years.