Case Studies

Ovingdean Garden Room

Architectural design by Joe @ Nature build.

The project spec was to design and build a music studio for the client to teach in that feels warm and cosy. Also have minimal impact on the environment and to look aesthetically pleasing as it is on view from the road.

Most timber is local sourced English larch, a really strong and durable wood. All untreated, milled and supplied by Copford Sawmill, East Sussex. All insulation is hemp fibre, internal plastered walls are wood wool boards and lime plaster, internal cladding is untreated larch. Flooring is oak herringbone. Doors and windows are handmade oak. Living roof with multi species sedum plants. The building is built on ground screws so no concrete used at all.

Fitzroy Road Hard Landscaping

To make a small urban garden into a safe place for the children to play, a space to relax and entertain friends and to make room for growing some food and encouraging wildlife.

The existing garden was split into four different levels with several sets of crumbling steps and two huge raised manholes. We reduced the garden to just two levels, retaining the back, upper, garden with a locally supplied oak sleeper retaining wall. The patio is now a mix of tumbled sandstone and tweed pebble planting pockets with the aim of creating a softer feel to the hard landscaping.

We also erected a pergola made from locally coppiced sweet chestnut round poles, this was installed with larger diameter timber than we normal use, so it can double up as a climbing frame for both the children and the adults. A long-raised bed was built along the south facing boundary to grow vegetables and a small wildlife pond was installed at the back corner of the garden.

The front garden was sewn with a wildflower seed mix and stepping stone paving through the meadow that this created.

Hill Drive Hard Landscaping

This was a very mature garden with lots of established trees and shrubs, quite wild with lots of slope.

Our aim was to make the garden more functional whilst retaining the wildness. Also, to improve the soil so that the client can grow food and flowers. We were also commissioned, now their children have grown up, to remove the play spaces and create entertainment areas.

The initial main project was to create two large eight metre long sweeping curved terraces. Lots of stone was present on site from the rockery so we matched it as close as possible to the additional stone we would need. After the banks were cleared and foundations put in place, concrete blocks formed the back of the walls. Then the onsite stone and Cambrian blue walling stone were blended together in the facing of the wall in a dry stone style, but bedded on mortar and tied to the concrete block backing.

Leading from the steps in the new walls, we laid a new brick paved path, curving around the existing plants up to a new brick paved patio. All brick used are local Sussex made paving bricks with oak sleeper retaining, supplied by Copford sawmill. A paved work space/potting area was installed around the shed to complete this project and all beds were filled with manure compost and topsoil to create maximum fertility.

Maintenance at Marine Gate

We have looked after the gardens at Marine Gate for over five years now and just renewed the contract for another year. This is a private block of 134 Flats on the outskirts of Brighton with beautiful sea views and nearly two acres of grounds. We managed 2,000 sqm of formal planting borders and lawns, 600 m of hedging and 1.4 acres of grass.

All our power tool are battery powered. All green waste we generate is composted off site and annually we mulch the planting border with compost.

This is a tough site as, due to the proximity to the sea, salty wind really damages the plants and drought in the summer is also a problem with no irrigation system.

We feed the soil every year to keep it healthy which in turn keep the plants healthy. High organic loading in the soil helps to retain moisture too. We also use and encourage the plants that are resilient to the harsh conditions.

In our time there we have seen the song bird population significantly increce with nesting blackbirds, wrens, goldfinches, robins and thrush. A peregrine falcon is also known to use the edge of the building as a perch.

Both onsite ponds now have breeding populations of frogs and newts. There are also breeding populations of common lizards and slow worms on site, both of which we have increased the habitat for.

We have left one of the  larger grassed areas to revert back to meadow and the results have been amazing with multiple different species of butterfly and bee returning. The badgers and foxes also seem very keen to dig in the longer grass/meadow!

Our grounds management at Marine Gate is nature focused, whilst keeping the front of the building formal and manicured and the back garden a little wilder with meadows and dense planting.

Maintenance at Manor Cottage

A private residence in the South downs national park, very close to the Seven Sisters with two acres of grounds.

Three different areas of wildflower meadow, multiple planting borders, an indoor swimming pool and a natural swimming pool outside, lots of large hedges, multiple mature trees, some small areas of woodland and a large area that combines a vegetable garden, forest garden and orchard.

Our role is to manage the whole site, caring for the meadows and hedges, growing the vegetables for the client and managing the perennial fruit plants. We also look after the swimming pools, install any new fencing, hedging, paving etc, working with the tree surgeon and others onsite.

We compost all our green waste on site and use the compost on the gardens, we have a fire wood rotation in one of the woodland areas and all branch/pruning are used in dead hedges creating wildlife habitat. Multiple nesting boxes have been installed for a variety of bird species.

There is an abundance of wildlife at this site everything from butterflies, insects, song birds, raptors and amphibians with a breeding population of adders being a personal highlight.