Landscaping

Before we talk about materials we want to know who uses the garden. Small children need a flat, soft area you can see from the kitchen. A dog changes what lawn will survive. If you entertain, the patio wants to be big enough for a table with chairs pulled out, and sited where the evening sun actually lands.

Those answers drive the layout, and the layout drives everything else. It is a much better order to work in than picking slabs first.

Most gardens we take on slope, and a lot of them slope towards the house. Sorting that out is the unglamorous part of landscaping that makes everything afterwards work.

That might mean cutting into a bank and building a retaining wall, or terracing the garden into two usable levels joined by steps. Either way we build retaining structures properly — with foundations, reinforcement and drainage behind them — because a wall holding back earth is doing real structural work.

For real turf, the preparation matters far more than the grade of grass. We rotovate, remove stone and roots, level, and put down a decent depth of quality topsoil before the turf arrives, so the roots have something to go into.

Artificial grass has come a very long way and genuinely suits some gardens — heavy shade, dog runs, or anywhere a mower is a nuisance. It needs a compacted, free-draining base underneath or it will ripple and hold water, so it is not the shortcut people expect.

We will put in beds, borders, hedging and mature shrubs, and prepare the ground so they establish rather than sulk. If you would rather plant it up yourself, we will build and fill the beds and leave the fun part to you.