Designing from scratch – stage two - By garden designer Lesley Hegarty

The second in our exclusive series on design looks at the process on brainstorming all the ideas which might go into the look of the new garden

With the brief, a full survey and site assessment and lots of photos in hand it was time to begin the more creative stage of the design process.

The beauty of a partnership is the collaborative approach which gives us the opportunity to share ideas and inspiration in order to come up with the best possible design for our clients. Our next step is to sit down with the accurately measured plan and brief and begin the brainstorming process. The large table in our studio is quickly covered with sheets of paper, pencils and piles of inspirational books and photographs.

There are some designers who use CAD, even at this early stage, but we believe you can never beat the flexibility of real drawing with a pencil and really letting the lines flow.

Garden design is, after all, an art. We throw everything into the melting pot – but first and foremost are the clients’ wishes. In this case they wanted somewhere to barbecue informally and a place to sit, a separate area for the dog and a lawn. The planting was to include lots of different shades of green and pink, and fragrance was a must. They requested a view through to the adjacent farmland, liked the idea of gravel paths and fancied decking for their seating area. As we find with many couples, one preferred the idea of flowing lines, whereas the other was a fan of symmetry and definite shapes, so it was up to us to find some way of pleasing both.

First of all we started with the bubble diagram – how to allocate enough room to combine all the required functions into the space, create different ‘rooms’, a successful interface between house and garden and, at the same time good movement through the space. This all had to be within a projected budget of £3,000, a low budget, but bear in mind that the clients were doing the work themselves.

We usually find that, out of the brainstorming process emerges a number of different options which all fulfil the brief, and we share those in the form of preliminary pencil sketches with the client. We may take along simple axonometric drawings to ‘bring alive’ various parts of the garden, (not everybody can understand 2D plans!). Moodboards are also a good way of conveying a ‘feel’ you are trying to create. We all know that a picture can often say so much more than words.

The process works best when the clients engage fully with us, and we encourage them to give us lots of feedback on our ideas in the form of additional suggestions or amendments. This is when they are beginning to have real input into the design and take ‘ownership’ of it. As with anything, you get as much from the process as you put in, and usually this is a thoroughly enjoyable process for all parties.

In this case we offered three options, one curvaceous, one linear and the last on the diagonal. After a very pleasant and interactive meeting our clients felt the option using the diagonal was most appropriate in this shallow but wide garden, making the space feel deeper and more expansive, and we were in total agreement. The straight lines gave a strong framework to the garden, but we were able to address the issue of flowing lines with romantic planting to soften some of those strong edges.

Occasionally additional meetings are needed to finalise a design, but following final approval from the client we then proceed to produce the detailed concept design. This process from survey to concept design usually takes 4 – 6 weeks depending on any adjustments the client may wish to make.

Lesley Hegarty and Robert Webber – www.hegartywebberpartnership.com – 01934 853273