Ian Morrison – National Landscape Awards
Graduate Gardeners’ designer Ian Morrison is still on cloud nine after the design and workmanship for a challenging project netted a top award.
It’s rare that I’m lost for words, but to hear Graduate Gardeners being announced as the overall winner in the prestigious National Landscape Awards 2021 was definitely one of those occasions.
We had been very proud of work we had carried out on a private garden situated on Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham and knew it had already been well received by the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI).
But to attend a ceremony at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London’s Park Lane and hear the project named as the principal in the ‘domestic garden construction – over 250k’ category and a special award winner for the best design and build, and then for it to go on to take the much-coveted grand award, was definitely a high point in my career.
I remember my first visit to the site, a hillside property that was undergoing a complete refurbishment, and vividly recall the challenges that needed to be overcome before we could realise our clients’ aspirations for their outside space.
Back then the gradient of the upper and lower gardens made these areas uninviting and difficult to maintain, while the driveway was long and narrow and offered little scope for turning and parking.
This kind of work is never considered lightly, especially given Cleeve Hill’s reputation for swelling and contracting, and we immediately engaged a structural engineer and a geologist for advice, before building a 50 metre-long and 1.8 metre high wall with a receding slope, known as a batter. This structure is 1.5 metres at its base, which is built half a metre below ground level, and tapers to 60cm wide at the top.
All in all we moved 600 tonnes of material and brought in approximately 300 tonnes of stone, with half of the Graduate Gardeners team spending three months building the wall by hand. It was fortunate that the weather was dry most of this time.
Material dug from the hillside was used to ‘sculpt’ the existing levels, some of which were laid with wildflower turf, which thrives on poor soils, while other areas were put down to lawn.
One side of the large mid 20th Century house looked out onto the Malvern Hills and Black Mountains, but this glorious view was obscured by three severely lopped cedars.
Other key features of the design brief included a smaller-sized swimming pool, possibly with a built in hot tub or jacquzzi; an outdoor cooking and entertaining area and more room for parking.
Taking all this on board, we had to find a way to create more usable space: our solution was to cut into the hillside and to stabilise what remained with a retaining wall built from Cotswold stone to make it an attractive feature in its own right.
When it came to the swimming pool/hot tub requirement, the solution was a swim spa. These are perfect for smaller spaces, being based on the idea of swimming in one spot against a current of water. The model chosen for this site had a self-contained hot tub too.
It was a big moment when our swim spa was hoisted into position using a crane, work that could only be carried out once there was enough space to accommodate such a large piece of machinery.
Close to the house is a contemporary courtyard with a distinct Italianate theme inspired by the heritage of our clients, which suits the style of the property really well. Porcelain has been used for paved surfaces, aside from the steps, and we’ve planted columnar cypress trees and an ancient olive, along with several geometrically-shaped beds edged with box and softened with perennials such as salvia, echinacea and penstemon.
On the night of the awards, the chairman of the judging panel John Melmoe said Graduate Gardeners had “raised the bar”, describing the combination of “a bold and intuitive design with construction perfection” and praising the way we worked in partnership with our client to create a setting for their home that “embraces and optimises” the surrounding landscape and views.
As for me, I’m still trying to get my head around it all.
Another came when we removed the cedars to reveal a view that had not been enjoyed for 50 or 60 years. We also removed a run of reconstituted stone balustrading, replacing it with frameless glass panels that maintain safety without obscuring what lies beyond.
This project was a large commission for Graduate Gardeners and I’m really proud of how it all came together. From the initial enquiry it was six or seven months before we started work and we were on site for almost a year. Among the biggest challenges was the access, which improved as time went on.
