Granite Town House

Devonshire Road, Aberdeen

Client Brief

The client was happy with the hard landscaping in the garden but wanted help with the planting of the borders. The main criteria for planting:

1) View from conservatory window

2) Scented plants and flowers

3) Cotoneaster, Silver Birch, and Iris to remain

4) All year round interest

5) Herbs

6) Possibly a vegetable patch

7) Retain existing slate border and obelisk

The client currently undertook a fair amount of gardening and pruning. Favourite plants in exisiting garden were mostly slow growing, evergreen shrubs, whilst least favourite plants were quick growing herbaceous plants.

Site Assessment

The site is south facing and falls away from the house with about a drop of half a meter. The existing hard landscaping is excellent and makes best use of the garden with terraced beds beneath the conservatory linking the lower garden with the house. The site is surrounded by mature trees which limit the light in most of the garden. The garden has had drainage problems in the past which have mainly been sorted, however, the ground is still on the damp side. The soil is a silty loam with a slightly acidic pH. The soil is impoverished and will require rehabilitation with addition of organic matter.

The site has 1.7m tall granite walls along both East and West boundries and a garage juts in to the end of the garden.

The borders have a number of plants that are worth retaining and integrating into the new planting plan. These plants include a dramatic Cotonister, Buddleja, several climbers and a few shrubs.

Design Idea

The main drive of the design is to add a skeleton of evergreen shrubs to give the garden some bulk and interest throughout the year. Then to plant into this structure a variety of smaller shrubs, again mostly, though not exclusively evergreen, to provide further variety of texture and foliage colours along with scents and changing flowers throughout the year.