Hertford Front Garden

This steep driveway up to a large house originally had a narrow entrance, poorly build retaining boundary wall and limited parking and turning space. Our transformation ensured that the new drive and garden was spacious, low maintenance and also beautifully planted to provide screening from a busy road.

Part of the renovation of a large house, the front garden needed a major re-design which included new roadside boundary walls and large resin bound drive. In addtion we widened the entrance, designed new hedging and colourful planting and used tumbled granite setts to form a driveway crossover and access paths to the rear garden.

Style

Contemporary Front Garden

Location

Hertford

Features

Resin Bound Drive, Granite Setts, Boundary Wall

The Story Behind the Garden

The re-design of this lovely Hertford front garden and driveway formed part of an extension project to the house which created the opportunity to landscape the front garden. Existing retaining walls for the garden were over 50 years old, poorly constructed and collapsing in places. A structurally engineered design was needed, one that was in keeping with the street-scene and at an appropriate scale for a large town property. The wall heights were raised and red bricks to match the house were selected, with supporting piers at intervals along the wall. The previously narrow driveway entrance was widened and a transition between highway and resin bound gravel was formed with solid textured granite setts. Part of the reason for this material choice was to ensure a good grip for vehicles accessing the drive.

The new driveway created was large enough to accomodate a number of family cars as well as attractive bin storage. Although large areas of the space were designed to accomodate car parking, two large lawned areas, extensive hedging, and diverse nectar rich planting were also part of the scheme.

New semi mature Yew hedging around the perimeter helps to baffle both noise and dust from the nearby road, provides a habitat for birds and insects and has created a dense evergreen backdrop for the whole garden as it matures.

Tumbled yellow granite setts were also used to form a driveway perimeter and safe, grippy path for access into the house and side passages.

Transformation Captured in Three Moments

For this new resin bound driveway, we used our excellent 3D visuals to communicate the new boundary wall and surface treatment.

Connecting new landscapes with existing buildings is often key to successful design. In this project the strong symetery of the house, the red brick and pale render were echoed beautifully by the choice of materials. Warm multi-tonal resin bound gravel, tumbled yellow granite setts and pale pier caps created light tones to compliment the rendered front of the house. The strong red brick boundary wall topped with emerald Yew hedging reinforced the visual impact of the red brick in the house.

It’s a beautiful design and expertly delivered and with a good balance between the ‘hard’ elements of the walls and drive with the ‘soft’ elements of the lawns, hedging and planting. Our favourite element is the granite sett crossover from the Highway, it’s practical because it provides a good grip for tyres onto tough textured granite, but its also provides a beautiful transition up to the house from the busy road.

Designer’s Insight

The transformation of the front garden is incredible. Everything looks incredible and we feel that we have so much space for parking now. Equally I’m very happy with the green buffer to the road provided by the hedging, new trees and planting. We’re all absolutely delighted with the end result.

Ashely – Hertford

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