25/08/2026
Earlier this year we transformed Margaret’s back garden, creating a calm and practical space designed around the way she—and Ralph, her golden retriever—use it.
The brief called for raised planting beds, a porcelain terrace and a simple, generous lawn. The resulting layout is deliberately restrained, with Corten steel providing a strong framework and the planting gradually softening its clean lines.
Six carefully selected trees form the garden’s backbone. Three evergreens—a three-quarter-standard Magnolia grandiflora and two upright Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata Robusta’—provide year-round structure. These are balanced by three deciduous trees: a multi-stem Amelanchier lamarckii near the house, Cornus ‘Norman Hadden’ and Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, chosen for their flowers, foliage and autumn colour.
Beneath them is a broad mixture of evergreen shrubs, including Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’, Skimmia and Fatsia japonica, combined with grasses and perennials to introduce movement, texture and seasonal colour.
One of my favourite parts of the project was reusing the beautiful Westmorland rockery stone that Margaret and her husband had lugged into the garden many years ago. Working it back into the new design preserved some of the garden’s history and introduced a welcome informality among the more geometric elements. Bran enjoys teasing me about my occasional “Minecraft-style” designs, so the irregular stone helps redress the balance!
The circular water feature also interrupts the straight lines, creating a visual focal point and bringing the calming sound of moving water into the garden.
The Breedon gravel path is remaining resolutely unplanted at Margaret’s insistence. This has not stopped me repeatedly asking whether I might tuck a few plants into it—or continuing to arrive with further planting suggestions whenever I visit—but so far she is holding firm!
The planting is still in its first growing season, but it is already establishing beautifully. Margaret has also been patiently waiting for us to return and tackle her front garden—which we’ll be starting soon.
Margaret Ferris
