contemporary back garden

a formal garden in the heart of Edinburgh

A contemporary garden design featuring pleached trees, a bespoke water feature, beautifully detailed sandstone paths and patios and mixed perennial and shrub planting to compliment a new modern home extension.

After completing a large scale renovation of their home our clients’ garden had become a building site and they were longing for a garden again.

The design for the garden must be in keeping with their new contemporary extension yet also compliment the vernacular of their location, the traditional sandstone architecture of Edinburgh's south side.

Patio doors open out onto a morning patio constructed from smooth sawn sandstone inlaid with a pattern of rumbled sandstone cobbles.

A cobbled path allows access to a large storage shed and compost heap and leads past a rectangular lawn to a raised secondary patio.

A water feature made from reclaimed sandstone blocks is coped with sawn sandstone to match the patios. The steel spill adds flow and movement to the pond which is planted with a mixture of water plants. A low wall extends from the water feature and provides extra seating on the patio.

Privacy from the surrounding tenement windows was also very important to our clients and we carefully positioned the pleached trees and the slatted fence to provide a barrier from surrounding houses.

A hedge of pleached hornbeam trees separates the ornamental garden from the vegetable garden. It is under-planted with a low, clipped Ceanothus hedge.