Open-air playground for people and wildlife

The brief

We created a sheltered yet vibrant outside room, complete with sunken area, barbecue and firepit for a family to enjoy. The outdoor design included play areas for children and pollen-rich planting encouraging butterflies, bees and other wildlife.

The design needed to include lighting, cooking facilities, a water feature and a pod providing shelter. We also added a hollowed-out sunken area to the garden design and included a wildflower meadow area, adding to the benefits for wildlife.

Challenges

The main challenge was getting all materials in and out of the garden, as everything had to come across the field at the end. This was significant given the need to remove 90 tonnes of clay, which we took from the sunken area. Butterfly-attracting plants need good drainage and we knew that this would be an integral part of the design. The garden needed to fit together as a whole and seamlessly blend into the surrounding landscape.

The design solution

The clay-banked sunken garden was designed to be the hub of the ‘inside outside’ area of the garden. Complete with a firepit, barbecue and water feature, our garden design provided a magical outside space for the family to enjoy long, summer evenings, with the fire designed to take the chill off the air at night and the air scented with the fragrance of phlox, thyme and other insect-attracting plants.

The plants were as important here as the hard landscaping, as sharing their outside home with wildlife was an important objective for our clients. We designed a planting scheme to include fragrant, colourful flowering plants in a range of heights. These included crocuses and thyme to tall asters and helianthus, the blue spikes of perovskia and the indispensable butterfly-magnet, buddleia.

The result was a spacious, harmonised open-air garden design that provided a relaxing space for both clients and the wildlife in their garden. To see what we can do for your garden, get in touch with us today.