Country Estate Garden - Sevenoaks, Kent

Design

Planting

Information

Country Estate Garden

Design Brief

A large country estate in West Kent offered wonderful countryside views with the potential for a classically elegant garden to compliment the property.

After long, careful discussions with the client the garden was designed, built and planted to include several water features, one of which cascades beneath a grand terrace.

Wide open lawns lead to the woodland beyond, whilst low maintenance planting ensured the garden provides colour, character and form throughout the year. For clients with a busy lifestyle, golf greens and a tennis court offer the opportunity for relaxing with the family.

Sevenoaks garden before construction started

Above: before construction

The water feature, comprising of a stainless steel ball and surrounded by brickwork with a stone coping.

This feature is one of the main focal points in the garden when seen from the terrace immediately at the rear of the house.

Playing with light and sound it not only reflects the colours which surround it but provides a visual link from the swimming pool to the long avenue walk.

Water feature for garden design at Sevenoaks

The main terrace at the rear of the house, with cascade water feature

The rear of the house provides the opportunity for creating a water feature with a difference, with a strong cascade exiting a stainless steel ridge, tumbling down the stone bank and then into a drop pool adjacent to the pathway.

The balustrading passes down both sides of the water feature allowing it to be viewed from a multitude of angles.

On such a grand scale as this garden the lines have to flow in a bold manner to ensure the design doesn't get too busy and distract the eye from the planting which extends from the house in a series of different characters.

Native species are introduced more and more into the mix as one gets further from the house, until one reaches the fields beyond the house where the planting is completely native, merging gently with the countryside.

The views of the countryside beyond are as important as the elements within the garden to ensure the design sits comfortably into the landscape.

The lines of the trees and hedges surrounding the tennis court are reflected in details closer to the house, in the planting and the lines within the patio, allowing the whole scheme to blend together.

The key to intelligent design is to encompass the landscape beyond the boundaries.

Sandstone terrace for garden design at Sevenoaks

The long walk pergola.

Grand design

The view from the terrace.

Elegant feature - 'Shaft of Light'

Sample plants

Hebe pagei, Lavandula 'Hidcote', Perovskia 'Blue Spire', Phormium tenax 'Variegatum', Spiraea 'Goldflame', Iris 'Black Knight', Kniphofia 'Percy's Pride', Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant', Sisyrinchium striatum, Tellima grandiflora, Stipa arundinacea, Stipa gigantea, Betula 'Grayswood Hill, Carpinus betulus 'Fastigiata'.

Materials

Natural Indian sandstone, Chilstone balustrading, Iota stainless steel features, unique water features, Balau decking.

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