Bespoke garden structures in a garden with a slope

09/03/2017 ALDA in Action

At our recent landscaping project in a garden in Caversham, the landscaping team at ALDA constructed two bespoke builds – one a stone water feature and the other a series of raised planting beds, on ground that slopes away from the client’s house.

Bespoke stone water feature

Completed water feature revealing the large stone at the far end and the beach area made up of smaller pebbles for the wildlife at the other.

The water feature fits snugly into our clients sloping garden and compliments the circular Indian Sandstone patio area.

Our client wanted a water feature to be built on the side of a circular Indian Sandstone patio area we had already installed. The water feature is constructed from stone boulders around a shallow pool of water and is approximately one metre wide by two and a half long in size.

With the intention of attracting wildlife such as birds, newts and frogs, at one end of the water feature we constructed a beach area made up of smaller pebbles. This will create easy access for the wildlife and a good spot to embed the water plants our client has planned. A large feature stone, with a hole already drilled through it, was placed at the opposing end to the beach area. Bubbling water traverses up and over the surface of this stone providing a soothing background noise as well as being visually pleasing. This large feature stone was sourced by our client (on our advice) at World of Water in Shinfield.

Building a water feature from scratch is always a challenge. It is a creative process which tends to evolve slowly and a lot of thought goes into the placement of each stone. An extra challenge in this garden was the sloping nature of the ground. For the water feature to work, it was essential that we excavated the ground so it was exactly level. It is very satisfying to see the end result and makes all the hard work worthwhile. It might even just give me the push I need to install a water feature in my own garden, something I’ve been planning for a while now!

Sloping raised beds

The view of the raised beds looking up to the house showing the steepness of the ground.

The view of the raised beds from the house looking down to the bottom of the garden.

Now onto the raised beds… These are made from softwood sleepers and run tight to the red brick boundary wall. They step down in a series of five beds, creating an attractive feature.

As with the water feature, they proved quite a challenge and my first experience of constructing raised beds on ground with such a steep slope. Once again, this involved excavating the soil to the correct levels.

A path constructed from Indian Sandstone paving runs along the edge of the beds, not only providing the finishing touch visually, but also allowing easy access to the raised beds for our client. The planting beds will provide the ideal space to grow vegetables and inject colour and form into the garden.

Like what you see?

From planning a new border to a complete garden remodel, we pride ourselves on transforming ideas into beautiful reality, with minimum disruption. If you’re based in or around the Reading and Newbury area, we’d love to meet and discuss your project in detail – book your free no-obligation garden consultation today. We do get pretty booked up, particularly during the Spring, so plan ahead if possible!