Terraced Garden Solutions

This garden was relatively small, with the added complication of being built on a steep hill, making it unattractive and not readily usable space.  Our clients wished to extend their living area out into the garden and utilise the sunny part of the garden at the top.    The old concrete steps were replaced with modern wooden steps and gravel, edged with planters which would mature over time to soften the overall design.  A large deck area was created at the top of the garden, utilising the late evening sun and giving the family a useful relaxation/entertaining space. 

Village Hall Re-Vamp

Holmbury village had received lottery funding to re-vamp their village hall, their brief to us was to make the entrance more welcoming and accessible to wheel chair users. The hall was also used for pre-school children activity during the day. Space was required for the children to be able to play outside in the summer safely away from the car park, and therefore the area needed to be enclosed by a fence. The spec for public buildings is quite strict, for instance the edge of a step has to be picked out in a different colour for the visually impaired. Lighting has to be added if the building is being used at night, and any fencing also had to fall within the special specification requirements. We worked with the village council to come up with a design that not only looked good, but also met all the building regulations.

Complete Garden Design (including removal of swimming pool)

This garden contained a swimming pool that our clients were just not using and they wished to fill this in and create a usable garden space, and at the same time renew the boundary fencing.  This was phase 1 of the complete garden design.

Parking Solutions

With residential parking becoming more controlled our client was worried about parking being restricted in their road. A family having more than one car is common but having off road parking for a second car is quite rare. We doubled the size of the parking area by excavating into the hillside and constructed a reinforced concrete retaining wall to hold back the hillside. The wall was faced with the matching brick to the house and the new area was paved with block pavers, creating comfortable parking for two cars. 

Mason Landscapes can offer parking solutions whilst keeping the overall aesthetic of your property intact.

Patio & Rear Garden

Our clients wanted a complete redesign of their back garden to give easy access around the garden whilst retaining some borders to add colour through planting.  Innovative patio solutions can create such spaces softened by lawn and plants.

Formal Vegetable Garden

This very large garden was a blank canvas for the new owners.  Their desire was to create a vegetable garden in a formal setting, whilst at the same time being low in maintenance.  To achieve this, the final design included raised beds made from green oak sleepers, and were surrounded by Indian sandstone paving. 

Raised beds require less digging and are easier on your back when working and the paving made it easier to access the beds with a wheelbarrow.   All the retaining walls needed to level the site were achieved using a sympathetic brick to the house.  As a final touch, automated Irrigation was fitted to all beds again reducing the amount of maintenance required.  

Family Garden

This was a project on a 1970s house which was undergoing modernisation, and owned by a family with two young children.   At the same time the garden was in need of updating; the owner’s priority was to achieve a safe and child friendly area in the garden, and creating a retreat for themselves whilst building work on the house progressed.   The garden needed to be terraced, and a rockery was a fashionable solution in the 1970s.  This had to go, and was replaced by a more contemporary sleeper retaining wall, maximising space.  The lower enclosed area was turfed and a bark area created for the children’s trampoline. The top terrace was paved in modern sandstone giving the parents their own area whilst being able to keep an eye on the children. 

Terraced Garden

Our clients had lived in this house for awhile and had tackled the rest of the garden but were at a loss with what to do with the area immediately behind the house (a small badly paved area with a 3.5m high bank of clay).  Terracing the area was the only way to create usable space. We increased the paved area and added a curve into the design, and created an additional seating area. To retain the whole bank in brick work would have been unsightly and expensive, so the two upper terraces were constructed from sleepers.  Hazel hurdles were then fitted to the sleepers to soften them and give a very pleasing back drop for planting. This project was a challenge as all the materials and soil excavated had to be brought through a gap of 80cm and down a flight of steps.

Water feature Kingston-upon-Thames

The clients brief was to design and build a water feature visible from the dining area, offering interest both day and night, but particularly at night. The final design had water pouring from a granite sphere, running down a stepped copper channel to an illuminated pool. Lights in the channel were designed to pick up ripples in the water as it runs over washed pebbles.  The resulting effect was exactly what the client was looking for.

Strawberry Square - Bristol Project - TV Programme

This was one of four projects undertaken for the TV Programme Anneka Rice's Flowerpot Men.  Anneka Rice teamed up with Phil Tufnell and Joe Swift to front a BBC1 series to regenerate outdoor spaces to create community legacies, and this one, named Strawberry Square was to create an interactive garden for underprivileged children in Bristol, with the help of local volunteers.  The work had to be completed within two weeks; there was no room for delay.  Unfortunately, it rained consistently, for two weeks as can be seen from the pictures.  Despite the challenging weather conditions the work was completed on time, even though at times it didn't feel as though it would!

Poplar Project - TV Programme

This was the second of four projects undertaken for the TV Programme Anneka Rice's Flowerpot Men.  Anneka Rice teamed up with Phil Tufnell and Joe Swift to front a BBC1 series to regenerate outdoor spaces to create community legacies, and this one, in Poplar was to create an inner city garden, full of peace and tranquillity in a relatively small areas in the heart of the city.  The work had to be completed within two weeks; there was no room for delay, so the team worked around the clock to clear the site and build the garden you see.  

Sheffield Project - TV Programme

This was the third of four projects undertaken for the TV Programme Anneka Rice's Flowerpot Men.  Anneka Rice teamed up with Phil Tufnell and Joe Swift to front a BBC1 series to regenerate outdoor spaces to create community legacies, and this one, was in the grounds of an old people's home, designed to give the residents a garden to enjoy, whilst ensuring disabled access around the garden, so that all residents could enjoy all the garden.