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Cheshire Retreat Garden
By garden designer Matt Nichol. The owners of this garden in Woodford, Cheshire, wanted to create a garden retreat as a destination point.
Their extensive garden was mainly lawn and deep shrub borders, and they rarely had reason to venture to the far end of the garden.
They decided to install a garden retreat as place to relax in the garden, entertain guests and as an occasional office. They called upon Matt Nichol Garden Design to help them achieve their vision. Matt helped the clients to select a bespoke garden retreat. The western red cedar cladding will soften with time to a silvery colour.
The garden retreat was ‘settled’ into the garden with a mixed planting scheme of shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, selected to create a natural and relaxed atmosphere. The soft rustling of the Golden Oats grass, Stipa gigantea, teamed with the tall purple Verbena bonariensis provides a winning combination.
A water feature was created with a Lily Bowl planter. The concentric circles of brick detail, gravel and thyme create the illusion of ripples on a lake. The garden retreat was linked back to the house by an informal winding path through longer grass and apple trees. The garden was installed in 2013, and these images were taken 8 months later in July 2014. This illustrates how quickly a garden can become established and with time the planting will fill out the borders further.
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Designed by Matt Nichol
Other gardens by this designer