Stamford · 2025
A contemporary garden with a lit porcelain path
A new-build plot given a long lawn, a porcelain terrace off the kitchen, a path lit for winter evenings and a hornbeam hedge for privacy.
- Garden area
- 310 m²
- Weeks on site
- 6
- Final cost
- £52,000
The brief and the build
New-build gardens come with the builder’s rubble just under the turf. This one had 150 mm of topsoil over compacted clay and brick, and a lawn that flooded every winter. We dug it out, drained it, and started again.
The design is simple on purpose: a long lawn, a porcelain terrace that runs level from the kitchen doors, and a path down the side of the house that is lit from dusk. The boundary is planted with pleached hornbeam over a hornbeam hedge, which gives privacy at first-floor height within three years.
Lighting cables were ducted before any paving went down. There are 14 fittings in total, on a timer that follows sunset. The gravel garden by the terrace is planted with grasses and salvias that need no watering once established.
“The design gave us somewhere to sit in the evening sun and a path we actually use in December. Worth every penny of the design fee.”
