Contemporary Rural Garden in Normanton le Heath

The brief: privacy without losing the view

Our clients’ new build sat in open countryside, with fields on one side and neighbouring windows looking straight in on the other. The plot was a blank canvas – good views, but no garden.

They wanted privacy that didn’t cost them the countryside views. The garden had to suit the contemporary architecture of the house and sit comfortably in the landscape around it. Above all, it needed outdoor areas they’d use as an extension of the house.

The original site was a complete blank canvas

A rill to draw the eye

The garden needed a focal point visible from indoors, and it needed to pull the eye out towards the fields. We designed a contemporary water rill as the spine of the garden, running on the sightline from the entrance hallway through the house..

Hard landscaping

Modern paving picks up the clean lines of the property. Stone forms the main pathways, with clay pavers adding contrast and softening the effect. Several seating areas catch the sun at different points in the day, each one working as a room off the house.

Planting for privacy and structure

Trees along the right-hand boundary screen the neighbouring windows without walling the garden in, and give the plot the structural framework it never had.

Amelanchier lamarckii planted into gravel provides lighter focal points, the multi-stemmed branching showing well against the mulch.

Ornamental grasses run through the scheme, including Hakonechloa macra, set against Astrantia major ‘Claret’. Purple alliums punctuate the planting, and their seed heads carry interest into winter.

Sitting in the landscape

The planting palette picks up the colours and textures of the countryside beyond the boundary. Grasses echo the meadow grasses in the fields and add movement. Alliums read as both garden plant and wild plant, which bridges the two.

The result

Our clients have their privacy and they’ve kept the connection to the fields beyond. Several outdoor areas let them follow the sun through the day, or settle somewhere smaller for the evening.

Layered planting – trees for structure, grasses for movement, alliums for punctuation – gives year-round interest that carries out into the landscape.

Design and planting: Lush Garden Design
Landscaping Installation: AC Creations

If you’re thinking about your own garden and how it might work harder as part of the house, we’d be glad to hear about it.