Garden Design project Chorlton Cum Hardy, Manchester, UK

The challenges faced by a garden designer

Topographic survey Chorlton Cum Hardy Garden Design Project.

Sometimes a project comes along that just grabs your attention due to the challenge it presents. This garden design project in Chorlton falls well and truly into that category. Whilst the property looks like a pretty normal house from the front, what if conceal at the rear aspect is a drop in level of some 4 meters, from top house level to bottom garden level. The challenge posed to me as a garden designer, to come up with a set of designs that not only provides usable space at the house level, but also a transition from the house level to garden level that also makes good use of the banking slope in a safe, child friendly and interesting way. 

 Pictures of the house and garden as first viewed. 

The clients brief however, is that the gardens should not have a contemporary feel, but rather in some way work on the same aesthetic principles I employed when designing the Enchanted Forest, part of a previous project of mine in Oldham. No easy task and therefore a worthy challenge. The biggest issues with this garden design project will be structural, as it will most likely involve pretty substantial steel frames, in order to support a large top level platform. Leading down from this top level I intend on designing in a number of features into the sub frame cladding to soften and blend what will end up being quite a bit of timber work. This will be achieved through a combination of green walls, inset bug boxes, wood store and a garden shed and covered area complete with a green sedum roof. 

One of the positives of the elevated position of this site, once the platforms are in place the views from the house level is pretty much into the tree canopy of surrounding areas.