LIVES HEREers: Jozer Calara, 30,Declan Burke, 29essions: Banking and research

of property: Ground floor apartment inGced house

tion: Balham, Londonhere since: May 2006

OJECT PROFILEplete garden redesign

ild route: Garden designerild time: Four weeksuation at start of project

7): Around £370,000st of project: £25,000 .w valuation (2008): £411,000

TBREAKDOWN'ng: Around £6,300s: £4,500oor furniture: £3,000'ng: £3,000tain: £1,000

: £700ge unit: £1,500

'Garden project. I

·We can now useour garden likean extra room ~

When Deelan Burke and Jozer CaJara bought theirground floor flat, its garden needed work to make itthe low-maintenance, sociable space they were after

Facedwith a bland expanse of lawn at theback of their flat, Declan and Jozer weredesperate to enhance the view and makemore of their outdoor space. However,

their initial ideas soon changed once they tookon an experienced garden designer.

'When we were looking to buy a flat a coupleof years ago, we despera ely wanted one with agarden,' explains Declan. '1 grew up surroundedby countryside so, livi g in London, I needed atleast some green space.

'We didn't touch the garden until about a yearafter we moved in. It was pretty uninterestingwith a large expanse of grass and a smalldecked area, which measured around 5x16m intotal. We don't have a separate dining room inthe flat so our main motivation was to create anarea that we could use for entertaining, but alsoone that wouldn't need too much maintenance-we knew we wouldn't have a lot of spare time tospend working out there so it needed to be ableto look after itself. ~

Create a relaxing spaceI /Fonn private areas enclosed by trellis and I

" climbers such as sweet peas and passionflowers. Light will still be able to come through butyou'll still have privacy.

/ Adding a focal point to your space, such as atf sculpture or fountain, or even a wigwam of runnerbeans, helps the eye to rest on one thing and not flit about,creating the perfect place for rest and relaxation.

.•••The eye-catching water feature is a focal point in thegarden. A similar, right-angled, handmade, stainless steelmodel at 115cm high will cost you £1,101 from FeatureDECO

'We decided the best route would be to hire agarden design company so it could plan andorganise the work for us. We basically scouredthe internet and came across Earth Designs. Thetransformations on its website were incredible,so we got in touch.

'After our first meeting with designer Katrina,our ideas did change. We initially thought aboutlaying new turf and creating a larger seatingarea. She came back to us with two designs -one along those lines and a far moreadventurous one that seemed a far bettersolution. There was no lawn to maintain, butloads of interest with decked walkways throughplanted sections, a water feature and plenty oftables and chairs. We just decided to go for it.

'The work only took about four weeks tocomplete with three people on it making a lotless mess than we had expected. Luckily there'saccess at the bottom of the garden so nothinghad to be carried through the house. EarthDesigns organised everything, from the plantsand decking to the installation of a power supplyfor the water feature.

'Katrina suggested that we go for moremature planting to create impact straight away .

.•. For stockist information see page 143

Of course this meant e rea:: = -budget, which was origi a: ~.:made a huge difference ar:: 3.:.right decision. There's a m' . :7 :-so the garden will look g ~ sarevergreen shrubs and sp ~;; ~= -flowering plants such as la. e-=-=--and montbretia. The deckr.;; :: -won't need constant mai .=---:='and cubed stools were co~s::-_::-:e-railway sleepers.

'The view from our Ii Ii ~ -=:- -completely. The 6ft high '.c.2'"" ==-:-main focal point and yo r e. := :: _wire cages, which will e.er- -C. =ejasmine and honeysuc e. - - :7and spotlights means v.e ~ ....:::_late into the night.

'The finished garden - -=-= :-hoped for. As well asoutside to eat breakfaSt 8..'"': - =extra room of the house . .:- "=' =-to be replaced because' €: =' =_by foxes but there's very 1':-" es=to do, which is exactly \" a:

PROJECT CONTACTSDesign and build Earth Des'_ ""'<:

www.earthdesigns.co.uk 020 &:2- ::

Garden project.'

SHERETara Walsh, Peter Niland and their

ar Eve, 4ions: Company directorsproperty: Four-bed detached housen; Wanstead, Londonre since: 2000

JEeT PROFILEen redesign includinge office

-Id route: Garden de~ignpany .

oldtime: 2-3 months •uation at start ofject (2006): £1,200,000st of project: £52,000w valuation: £1,300,000TBREAKDOWNen office: £22,000'ng: £8,000ways: £3,000er feature: £2,500'ng: £4,000

iWe transformed ourgarden and added

a home office~Having updated and extended their family home, Tara andPeter set their sights on improving their large garden with

a play area, an entertarn.ing space and home office

Tara and Peter Walsh employed a gardendesigner to re-work their outdoor space.They didn't want to radically alter the layoutbut needed help prioritising their needs.

'We'd extended our house up and out,' Tara explainsof their four-bedroom house in Wanstead, so next onthe list of improvements was the garden. There wasnothing drastically wrong with it, but the lawn wasalways cluttered with the children's toys, and the

patio by the house was small and had seen betterdays. With the new sliding doors from the extensionleading onto the patio, we wanted to make more of it.

'Neither of us are keen gardeners, so we knewwe'd have to employ a garden designer. Luckily, afriend recommended Earth Designs so we didn'thave the stress of finding one ourselves.

'We had a consultation with Katrina from thecompany, who then started working on plans. ~

~ The new design byKatrina at EarthDesigns included apath between theenlarged patio and theoutbuilding. Katrinadevised a series of tallarchways made fromchunky wooden postsat intervals along thepath, with a stainlesssteel water feature atthe end to form astunning focal point

However, in the meantime I went to a propertyexhibition and saw some fabulous glassoutbuildings designed by Garden Lodges. Peterworks from home and we'd been consideringways to create an office away from the mainhouse, so one of these seemed perfect. I wentback to Katrina and ask her to incorporate thisinto our design.

'It's actually worked brilliantly. The originalpatio has been replaced by a larger one usingsandstone slabs. A matching path leads fromthere, down the left-hand side of the garden to acircle of paving in front of the office. At first, I

wasn't convinced and thought it may just looklike a path to nowhere, but with the stainlesssteel water feature positioned at the end, it reallydoes draw your eye and create interest.

'There's still a large area of lawn but thechildren now have their own play area. It's at theback of the garden and divided off from themain lawn with a wide flowerbed. Katrina movedsome of our existing Sky Rocket conifers to helpscreen off this part of the garden. I also got alarge climbing frame for the children's area,which was inspired by one I saw at a hotel we'dstayed at. I searched for the company that made*For stockist information see page 143

it on the internet and it delivered and asse;the frame on site.

'Earth Designs project managed all thefor us and consulted with Garden Lodgesordinate the build. We have access at thethe property so we weren't disrupted muthere was very little that we had to do, it ~very smoothly. There were up to three pfrom Garden Lodges working on the homeand three more working on the garden soabout 2-3 months for the work to be com

'Although Katrina ran all the ideas pastwere happy to let her get on with it. We hlittle expertise when it comes to gardenin_we relied on her to come up with a planwould work for us and be low mainten

'We've had one summer with the nebut now it's more mature, we're lookingto enjoying it this year. It's a cliche, but adesigned garden really is an extension 0<

home. Downlighters on the posts and sin the beds mean we can be out there la:ethe evening. It caters for all our needs -children, an office for Peter and an socia.

'I'd certainly recommend using a garcdesigner. It's just like using an architect <-

extension - you're paying them for theirand experience.' *PROJECT CONTACTSDesign and build Earth Designs:www.earthdesigns.co.uk 020 8521 9040Home office Garden Lodges:www.gardenlodges.co.uk