Pond in a tropical paradise by London based Fork Garden Design

Our client was a young professional with a love of painting and open spaces. She bought the property a couple of years earlier and had just finished working on the interior - now it was time to tackle the overgrown garden.

The brief was simple - create something with lots of colour and a pond.

We played around with various concepts and finally settled on the one shown above.

There were only two plants worth keeping in the entire garden, a Prunus lusitanica tree and a Fatsia japonica shrub. As they were quite big and established their chance of survival if dug up and moved would have been pretty low so we designed the garden around them.

The finished garden would include a patio, a lawn with stepping-stones, a deck floating over a large pond and a raised metal walkway above plants and water.

The planting would be colourful and have a tropical feel, including tree ferns and giant Agapanthus.

 

Work started on clearing the garden and the first thing to be tackled was the mass of ivy covering the right hand side fence. It was dense and surprisingly heavy but still no match for our shears and saws.

A couple of hours later and it was nearly all down and time to start bagging up the rubbish ready for disposal the next morning.

At the end of day 1 the garden was totally cleared and ready for the new layout to be marked out on the ground with pink string.

Now that there was nothing left in the garden it felt twice as big and when the client arrived home she couldn't believe how much space she really had.

Over the following few days lots of digging took place, the hardest of which was at the bottom of the garden for the new pond. The earth in this area hadn't been touched for many years and was rock solid. Although the deck appears to float over the pond it merely overhangs it by 20cm, this means that the pond is really an 'L' shape. To get a nice straight edge that would not crumble with the force of the water pushing against it we made up a shuttering system and back filled it with concrete. Legs for the deck to bolt to were set within the concrete before it set, making the frame rock solid.

The garden fell by half a metre from the house to the rear wall so we carried out levelling works to build the garden on three levels. The patio would be the highest, the lawn and stepping-stone the middle and the pond would be the lowest.

A wooden sleeper wall divided the middle and lower levels. The deck was built to be perfectly level with the lawn an top of the sleeper wall, attached to both was a walkway made from recycled metal grills that sat on a timber frame 30cm above the planting. The grills allow you to walk through and above the planting on the way to the deck, finally passing over the pond. Lighting was installed under the grills and at night it gives a really magical effect to the whole area.

Timber edging was used to shutter off the path area so that the base could be laid and compacted without mixing in with the soil.

The sleeper wall is held in place with long bolts attached to posts at the back. The posts are concreted deep into the ground to make sure they don't move.

Grey sawn sandstone paving was used for the path and a step was added to make it easier to walk between the levels.

The pond is 2ft deep and has a pump and filter system that runs 24 hours a day, all year. This keeps the water nice and clean and has allowed the client to stock the pond with a dozen or so large fish. Aquatic plants have been added to create a more natural environment and give the fish places to hide.

The pond liner is capped with a heavy black metal edging that not only protects it but also gives the pond a nice crisp finish.

When full, the water level sits 2cm below the bottom of the deck - hence the floating effect.

The timber frame supporting the metal grill walkway was painted black and a hardwood trim to match the deck was added around the edges. This trim holds the grills in place and just adds a nice finishing touch.

It was then time to bring in some really good new topsoil and compost. The compost was added to the planting beds and the topsoil was added to the new lawn area. After raking the soil over and removing any final bumps and lump it was time to start laying the lawn.

 

The plants that were used in this garden included:

 

Perennials:

Agapanthus 'Headbourne Hybrids'

Agapanthus umberllatus 'Ovatus'

Crocosmia masoniorum

Crocosmia ‘Limpopo’

Echinacea purp.'Magnus'

Euphorbia robbiae

Heuchera 'Chocolate Ruffles'

Heuchera 'Obsidian'

Hosta sieboldiana

Hosta undulata Albomarginata’

Iris ‘Jane Phillips’

Kniphofia 'Alcazar'

Lilium philipinense

Liriope muscari 'Big Blue'

Lobelia fulgens 'Queen Victoria'

Nepeta ‘Walkers Low’

Penstemon 'King George'

Penstemon 'Sour Grapes'

Pennisetum villosum

 

Shrubs and climbers:

Cornus Kousa

Cordyline dazzler

Phormium 'Pink Panther'

Phormium tenax variegata

Rhus typhina 'Dissecta'

Photinia ‘Red Robin’

Trachelospermum jasminoides

 

Ferns:

Dryopteris erythrosora

Dryopteris filix-mas

Dicksonia antarctica

 

Grasses:

Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron'

Miscanthus sin. 'Ferner Osten'

Miscanthus sin. 'Sirene'

Molinia caer. 'Heidebraut'

 

What the client had to say: "Fork's garden design and project management ability was fantastic. The service was great - they were really flexible, taking the practical elements that were important to me into account, while also offering really creative and innovative ideas to give the garden a 'wow factor'. They were absolute perfectionists when it came to the building aspects, while also working very quickly. They've completely transformed the garden; I feel like I'm on holiday when I'm in it! It also looks so much bigger now, and has even made an impact on my flat by letting more light in and making my home overall feel more spacious and bright. I'm thrilled with the results! "

 

More examples of Fork's work can be seen at www.forkgardendesign.com

Done