Henebery residence

The clients wanted a family garden but very early on decided to also build a new family room positioned almost in the centre of the new garden and half sunk into the ground. This aspect of the building was to provide the biggest challenge to the garden and necessitated wrapping the garden around this particular extension of the house.

The clients wanted different spaces to sit in, more privacy at the boundary next to the riverside walk, areas of lawn for the children as well as low maintenance planting. All this with a large half-sunken games room in the middle of it!

The site has a level change dropping from the house down to the rear boundary. The closeness to the river meant that a flood barrier wall next to the house could not be dropped for simpler access to the garden from the basement kitchen.

It was important that the garden structure revealed different areas and did not feel like it was just accommodating the new family room. The first main terrace allows easy access from the kitchen, then terracing down to a small lawn with a linking path that circulates through to another lawn and secondary patio to catch the evening sun. Rather than slope the levels it was important to use a small series of retaining walls to provide usable level areas.

Plants are essential to the garden to create a foil for the strong green boundaries. Planting consists of primarily low aintenance shrub and perennial planting. An instant 1.5m hedge of Hornbeam was planted early on to provide privacy from the riverside path. This species is ideal for the slightly exposed site and has performed much better than a more traditional Beech hedge.

Many trees have been planted including Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer' and Acer rufinerve. A wide variety of shrubs and perennials give year round interest and colour. More importantly maintenance is relatively simple which has been essential for this busy family.