A contemporary family courtyard garden design in Lincolnshire
For any Lincolnshire garden designer, the opportunity to design a contemporary courtyard garden is too good to miss. Having recently gained planning permission for a generous extension to their beautiful property in the heart of rural Lincolnshire, our customer wanted to create a family-friendly garden to complement their architect's bold and exciting plans.
From blank canvas to a safe and stimulating family garden
The starting point for this project was the desire to provide a safe and stimulating outdoor space for our customer and their young family. Work was about to begin on the construction of the extension and a new boundary wall to enclose the generously proportioned garden space and separate it from the adjacent driveway and garaging. The new garden was largely being ‘reclaimed’ from the existing drive and parking, so this really was a ‘blank canvas’ before we set to work.
The contemporary attractive extension was to feature a substantial amount of glazing, so as well as being a practical space it was essential that our design for the new garden would provide attractive year-round views.
A garden design featuring lots of lovely curves
Working from the architect’s plans, we took the curved façade of the new extension as the starting point for a garden design featuring curves and circles. Using curves in our design would also help to reduce the visual dominance of the courtyard’s new brick walls. An attractive sculptural focal point marks the centre of a circular planting border, which in turn is surrounded by a wide sweeping path.
Linking each area of the garden, this path provides all-weather access to the gated drive and parking area. A curving sandstone terrace creates plenty of space for seating and entertaining, and a modest area of lawn gives a soft area for ball games and family fun. Interestingly-shaped planting areas create lots of opportunities for year-round colour and texture.
Selecting the right materials to complement the garden design
As with every good garden design, it was important to select the right hard-landscaping materials for this project. The warm colours of the sandstone paving provide a visual link with the attractive red brick of the property, whilst the blue engineering bricks and blue-grey natural stone setts used to edge the paving and create the curved path complement the the door frames and the lead detailing on the roof of the extension. These materials work together wonderfully well, and the garden and property feel cohesive and connected.
Planting design to soften the hard-landscaping
Every well-designed garden relies on intelligent planting design to bring it to life. Our customers had requested low-maintenance planting but also wanted year-round colour, texture and visual interest. The need for taller plants was another consideration- courtyard gardens always tend to benefit from planting with height as it helps to soften the visual impact of the boundary walls or fences.
We created a careful balance of perennials and shrubs to give seasonal colour, texture and structure. These combine to create an excellent low-maintenance mixed planting scheme, offering ground cover to suppress any cheeky weeds whilst always providing something interesting to enjoy. A few small-garden specimen trees offer additional interest and height, and complete the layout of this fabulous courtyard perfectly.
A versatile and much-loved extension of the living space
So, another wonderful Lincolnshire garden design. The completed garden has exceeded our customer’s expectations and over the years it has become a versatile and much-loved extension of the family’s living space:
“We could never have achieved the most amazing space without the design creativity of Ian. He turned a very uninteresting area into a beautiful garden that changes with every season and each year brings something new. The whole garden flows perfectly, and is nothing but a delight to be in. It is full of interesting shapes, angles and levels which are so subtle but make such a difference.
We receive so many compliments on it and we enjoy it all year round. It is well used and loved by us all and could not recommend Ian enough. He could see exactly what was required by us even before we did!”