Westacott Gardens - Garden Design and Landscaping, Chelmsford, Essex.

New build garden transformation.

Been a very busy few weeks here at Westacott Gardens as we've had a run of several smaller jobs to complete and some larger one's in the pipeline so lots to look forward to.

One of these smaller gardens was a new build garden that was literally empty and needed a design to be implemented so the owners could get out and use their garden this Summer.

The clients had a pretty clear plan, so we helped them visualise this with a quick 3d mock up and with a few tweaks we set to building the design.

Refreshing tired planting in raised beds.

We're currently working on bringing to life a new planting plan for an existing customer here in Essex. We'veworked with this couple for years looking after an existing garden they had built several years ago. Over the past year the planting in two central raised beds has started to look tired and hasn't been performing as well as the client would like so knowing that we specialise in planting they asked us to come up with some fresh ideas.

New Hydrangea to be grown by our key plant supplier.

One of our top plant suppliers in essex has just announced they will be growing a new Hydrangea for 2010. The Wims Red Hydrangea looks stunning with flowers that turn from white to red. Flowering begins in June and the flowers remain very attractive into the Autumn.

We love creating bespoke planting plans for each of our clients based on the ethos of right plant right place, so who knows, hopefully we could be using this plant soon in. The right plant selection can make a huge difference to any garden design and should always be given the right amount of time and effort to get right. Often plants are pushed to the back of the design process appearing as an afterthought to the hard materials.

At Westacott Gardens we believe in thinking about the plants as an integral part fo the design process, as the right plants add that extra dimension to a new garden project, truly bringing it to life and ensuring an ever changing and evolving garden.

 

Contemporary garden completed, raised beds, hardwood deck and limestone paving.

Here's a few pictures (taken whilst it was snowing) from a our latest completed design and build project. The client was really looking to make use from their garden and gave us an excellent brief to create a useable space that had a contemporary feel but wasn't too cold or minimal.

This led us to explore different matertials and designs that could meet this brief before we finally settled on a final look and feel for the garden. Balau hardwood decking gives a real warmth to the garden with its rich brown tones contrasting with the dark paving and white rendered beds.

Large design and planting job coming to an end.

We're coming to the end of this large project in South Benfleet with just some general tidying up by builders to be done. For this particular client our role was to design the garden, help manage the build and then return to plan the garden on completion.

Billericay planting job revisited.

It's always nice to revisit jobs a while after completion to see how the gardens have changed and developed.

This is especially true when looking at planting schemes which in most cases are planted with a view to how the scheme will look in the future.

So it was nice to return to this garden in Billericay a year after completion to see how the plants had got on. On the whole everything was looking good, with plants filling out nicely and the herbaceous perennials putting on a good show around the focal pieces.

Essex garden design and inspiration from a canary (island!)

Having just returned from a brief holiday in Lanzarote I thought I would share a few horticultural sights that will remain with me and potentially emerge in future garden designs.

Inspiration and ideas for designs or planting schemes can come from the strangest and most obscure places. But as soon as we began the transfer from Lanzarote airport to our hotel I was struck by the landscape of this dark almost moon-like environment.

The journey to the hotel cut through this arid landscape with huge palms emerging from the black rock infested ground. And it was this black rock and aggregate that burnt the first impression.

Spring is coming - bulbs, buds and busy gardeners!

Finally some half decent weather has made its way to Essex so it's been a week of catching up with some of our maintenance clients. As expected most gardens are looking pretty rough following the spate of weather we've had from snow to torrential rain so its been a case of gerneral tidying up and cutting back dead growth.

It's an exciting time of course as spring is approaching, which for us is one of the best seasons in the garden. We get to watch as planting plans start to come to life once more, bulbs are starting to show their new growth above the soil, buds are appearing and clients are starting to think about how to improve their gardens for another year.

Olive trees in Essex?

The olive tree is a Mediterranean classic instantly evoking images of warm climates, so perhaps not a tree you would place in Essex, especially surrounded by snow!

But this week we were sent some pictures of some stunning olive trees just in stock with one of our key suppliers - Premier Plants .