Our unfortunate customer unknowingly bought a house in a new development with two large sewage manhole covers in her small back garden. The smell and site of this caused her significant upset, and we were employed to find a problem to this unpleasant smell, sound and sight!
This served as a inspiration for design, with two golden mean spirals emerging from walls surrounding and screening the manhole covers, built from sandstone blocks. The manhole covers were sealed with grease and covered in planting troughs. This featured alongside a remodeling of the flagstone path in an interesting stepped pattern followed by an adjacent douglas fir raised bed.
One of the spirals encloses a pond, in which we built a plinth to stand an ice blue marble monolith as a water feature to gently bubble up water. These spirals, one with a herb bed and the other with a water feature emerging from the harmonious geometry of the golden mean spiral, is the core means with which we created the alchemy of transforming this unpleasant initial situation into serene beauty.
A second focal point of a large Himalayan birch under-planted with ferns, is set in front of blue painted fencing. The tree gives height and screens the neighbors behind. The vertical space enlivened by climbers on the painted walls. Grasses featured strongly in the design, with existing strap like purple Phormiums (flax), lancing Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and an existing Ceanothus.
The foreground planting consists of a mixture of Salvia, Erygium, Erigeron, Imperata, Seslaria, and Echinacea.
‘I’m really pleased, everyone who sees it says how lovely its going to look’ -Judith (2023)
‘The thyme is glorious. The garden is giving me great joy.‘ -Judith (2025)
Prunus Garden and Tree Services 