URBAN - Wildlife Haven
This Brighton garden is situated in a residential tree lined area between Preston and Blake’s Parks behind a Victorian semi detached house.
Before being built on in the 1880’s, this area used to be an orchard. With some of the old fruit trees still remaining in adjoining gardens, this garden is a hub for wildlife. It had huge potential but was overgrown, outdated and needed redesigning following the removal of a huge diseased ash tree.
The brief was to make it work for a young family with pets. It had to retain and enhance the existing wildlife corridors whilst making boundaries safe and attractive. We needed to include:
Shaded family dining space
Immersive retreat pockets with seat
More privacy
Lawn for mostly for kids and dog
Seasonally interesting, drought proof and pollinator friendly planting
Wildlife pond
Garden shed for bikes and tools
Play area with mudkitchen /playhouse
Hammock
Greenhouse
We transformed the basic layout into a simpler design by using natural, affordable,. low maintenance, sustainable and untreated materials:
granite pebbles for the paths
oak sleepers to build raised beds
permeable and durable resin bound gravel for the dining area to create a smooth sophisticated surface and look
slatted screens and fence made using red cedar
Keeping the materials simple and the planting naturalistic makes this garden not only feel contemporary but it is a wildlife magnet!
The Wildlife pond (no fish!) really brings to garden to life. It is raised in a bed to minimise the danger of falling in and is bordered by tall, pollinator friendly, low maintenance plants such as hylotelephium, grasses, verbena, scabious, euphorbias and Veronicastrum to further discourage access for small children and pets. The Rockery leading up to the pond enables those we do want easy access for: frogs, toads, newts and any other wild animal that may need a drink.
The boundaries were updated where needed. The garden walls were patch repaired using lime mortar and we introduced slatted screens to create more privacy. We made sure that we left gaps for wildlife to squeeze through at both ends of the garden to act as a corridor between adjoining gardens.
We installed a grey metal framed powder coated pergola, which acts in two ways: the dining is no longer overlooked and it is shaded from the sun. To round off the sleek look, we fitted a new gate which was painted black to match the storage shed, the playhouse and any additional storage.
With the free draining soil on chalk in Brighton, it was important to keep planting drought tolerant and low maintenance. We needed key plants that would perform in all seasons.
Spring bulbs (Daffodils, snowdrops and allium)
Sun loving perennials that would stand out over the Summer and Autumn months ( Astrantia, Echinacea, Lavender, Salvias, Geum, Lady’s Mantle, Hylotelephium, Achillea, Agapanthus to name a few).
Shade tolerant ferns, hydrangeas and a Fatsia
Key large plants and best performers is a beautiful mature multi-stem Hazel (which wasn’t newly planted), a large Acer for Autumn colour and a stunning little crabapple for all seasons.
