Scottish Borders Country Garden

Project Description

A busy professional couple with two small children recently moved in to his Scottish Borders country garden. The clients wanted to create a garden that was fun for the children to play in. They wanted a garden design that would entice wildlife in to the garden. They also wanted to incorporate an area for a productive garden. The garden needed to be sympathetic to and in keeping with the beautiful surrounding landscape.

I used soft flowing curves in the garden design to echo the surrounding hills. I also divided the garden into a series of ‘garden rooms’ with spaces for different used. For entertaining, I created a paved seating area with sail shade. There was also an area of the garden with swings and slides for the children to play on. The productive area had a greenhouse and raised beds for growing fruit and vegetables. There was also a pretty woodland area with a path down to the river. I incorporated a series of paths in to the design to link the different spaces and to encourage the clients to use the whole garden.

It was a very exposed garden, so I created a shelter belt to protect the plants and the clients from the cold winds. I selected only the hardiest of plants, as these had to withstand growing in this garden at high altitude. As well as being rich in berries and nectar, the planting had to survive the cold winters that this Scottish Borders country garden was subjected to.