Landscaping in Ringmer, East Sussex

We had turfed and fenced the back garden for these clients last summer, and this time they wanted to re-organise their front garden. Their specifications were additional parking and turning space on their drive, a wider entrance, taking up the lawn, and a new fence.

The Story

We had a large area to work with and so as well as widening the drive we proposed making raised beds in place of the lawn to break up the space and add interest. This was going to be a really exciting project and so we were thrilled when they decided to go with us.

An unwelcoming and unremarkable entranceway.
What a difference 3 weeks makes. - their new improved entrance befits their lovely home.

As the photos show, there was a dramatic improvement after 3 weeks’ hard work, and our clients were over the moon, so this was a very rewarding project for us.

The left hand side of the front garden – a new drive, fences, gate and bed.

The old drive
The Ringmer Armageddon.
Things can only get better.

The membrane and gravel going down on the new drive.
Fencing in progress.
A formerly unused area of the garden transformed with a shade loving planting scheme.

We called the first few days of this project the Armageddon phase and it must have been completely nerve wracking for our clients as we pretty much dug up the entire garden, including the old driveway and paths. What was left we destroyed, knocking down the old front wall and taking out the fences and hedges. We took a lot of the resulting rubble away and this was no mean feat given that the extensive paths were all set into 8 inches concrete. Ouch!

We were very glad that our clients trusted us implicitly and were not worried by the mud and destruction.

What made us equally happy was the hot beverages and cake they kept us constantly supplied with!

In fact their tea saw us through days of lashing rain, working in muddy slop and hauling out wheelbarrow loads of concrete, and for this we would like to award them with our prestigious and most sought after “The Sussex Gardener Tea Making Trophy”!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

The garden now a blank canvas we started landscaping it. We erected new close boarded fences at the front and side of the garden and installed a double five bar gate at the entrance. We used the broken up pieces of old drive with a 100mm layer of compacted type 1 on top to create a level and durable sub-base for the new one. In order to prevent weeds we covered the entire driveway with membrane before covering that with tons of gravel. That drive is built to last.

A new bed under a tree neatly edged and planted up with shade loving plants completed the left hand side of the garden.

The right hand side of the front garden – raised beds.

The original lawn and the concrete paths.
Ringmer Armageddon Part II (subtitled boys and their toys!)
The paths removed, the ground dug and ready to be transformed.

Before the paths were finished and the beds planted up.
Looking out towards the drive through the newly planted up beds.
View of the raised beds from the drive.

After the slog of digging out the paths, it was great to have the ground levelled and ready for the new beds. We made these using lengths of timber, in filled them with topsoil and planted them with evergreen plants which are not only low maintenance but will provide year round colour and interest. By next summer all the shrubs will have filled up the spaces nicely.

The earth around the plants was covered in mulch to minimise the amount of watering and weeding our clients will have to do. The paths in between were levelled before the weed deterring membrane went down. The hardwood chips on the path contrast so well with the mulch on the beds and the gravel on the drive.

One year on.