Location: Kent, UK

The clients wanted a garden to replace the empty fields into which a 15th century barn had been painstakingly relocated. A walled garden, a wildlife garden and colour were the three requirements.

A walled garden was located in an area where it would have least impact on neighbours: the rest of the garden took its cue from the routes to and from this space.

The walled garden has been planted with 100 climbers inside and out: formal rosebeds are contrasted by a folly of a false perspective pergola, intended to lead the onlooker to misinterpret the stone bird carving at the end.

A mown path through a wildflower meadow leads to double herbaceous borders, planted with rich jewel colours and grasses for autumn structure and colour.

Hedges when mature will screen this area from three steel reflecting water tanks. From here the sandstone terrace wraps around the back of the house, looking out onto a formal pool flanked by pleached hornbeam.

Looking back from here the wildlife garden can be seen, beneath the kitchen window. Grasses provide movement whilst buddleia, sedum and verbena bonariensis provide food for wildlife and colour for the human inhabitants.