We positioned the bed of grasses and perennials based on the layout, around a small clearing on the sunny side of the plot. Behind this bed, a ‘dancing’ hedge was formed from clipped Thuja Brabant along the fence. At its tallest point, it conceals the neighbours’ buildings and provides an essential background to the bed, while at its lowest point it allows the neighbours’ apple and plum trees creep into the garden. In this way, the hedge fulfils its primary purpose of hiding the garden from view, while avoiding a harsh boundary.

During the reconstruction, we relocated most of the sprawling shrubs across the whole garden, adding plants as focal points and using plantings to hide buildings recently constructed by the neighbours and conceal the property from the road.

As the owners requested, we introduced ‘forest’ plants in areas unsuited to a lawn. These plants were specially selected based on the timing and duration of flowering to provide decoration in the summer and colour in autumn. Pine bark paths were laid like in a real forest, with no clear edges, while leaves and pine needles are left to form a genuine, wild forest floor.

The owners are permanent residents so the garden must bring them pleasure year-round. With this in mind, we incorporated one tiny but essential detail into our design – plants at strategic points around the garden which are changed several times a season.