Full Garden Renovation in Ledbury — Free Flowing Design With Sandstone, Resin Gravel and New Lawn

Full Garden Renovation, Ledbury

We came across a blank canvas new build garden in Ledbury. Clean, tidy and completely untouched. The kind of plot that could become anything with the right thinking behind it.

The clients knew what they wanted from the space. A free flowing garden with curves rather than straight lines. Plenty of room to entertain. Large garden beds to fill with their own planting. And a proper new lawn to tie it all together. It was a well thought out brief and it gave us a lot to work with.

This is the full breakdown of how it came together.

The Design

The whole garden was designed around movement and flow. No hard corners, no rigid grid layout. The lawn curves, the pathway curves around it, the garden beds curve along the boundaries. Everything connects to everything else and the eye is drawn through the space rather than stopping at a straight edge.

That kind of design takes more setting out than a standard rectangular layout. You are working with arcs and sweeping lines rather than measurements between two fixed points. Get it wrong and the curves look awkward. Get it right and the garden feels natural and considered.

This one was got right.

The Lawn

The new lawn was the centrepiece of the design. A large curved turf area that gives the garden its shape and provides the green anchor the whole layout is built around.

The turf was supplied by Charella Gardens who provided a quality product that established well. Good turf supply matters as much as good installation. Poorly grown or improperly stored turf will struggle no matter how well the ground underneath it has been prepared.

The ground was prepared properly before any turf went down. Levels were set, the ground was raked and consolidated and the turf was laid tight with no gaps. Once it was down it was watered in using a sprinkler to give it the best possible start.

The lawn edge was finished using CoreLP edging product which holds the curve cleanly and keeps the separation between lawn and pathway sharp over time. It is one of those products that does a simple job extremely well. The curve of the lawn edge sets the tone for the whole garden and it needs to hold its line. CoreLP does that. You can read more about our turfing and lawn installation services here.

The Pathway

The pathway runs around the lawn and connects the different areas of the garden. It was built using two materials working together.

The stepping stones are natural sandstone slabs sourced from London Stone, set at a comfortable walking pace through the garden. London Stone is one of the best suppliers in the country for natural stone and the quality of the product shows in the finished result. The warm tones in the sandstone sit well against the resin gravel and complement the timber sleepers throughout the design.

The rest of the pathway surface is resin gravel. Resin bound gravel is a strong choice for a pathway that needs to hold a curve because it lays smoothly around bends without the gaps or movement you get with loose stone. It drains well, it compacts firm underfoot and it looks clean for longer than loose aggregate does. The combination of sandstone stepping stones set into resin gravel gives the pathway a designed quality that plain paving or plain gravel alone would not achieve.

The Garden Beds

The garden beds are one of the defining features of this project. Large, curved, generously sized and ready for the clients to fill with whatever they want to grow. That was important to them. They wanted beds big enough to make a real difference to the garden over the years as their planting develops.

The beds were formed using timber sleepers sourced from Selco in Cheltenham. A particular thank you to Hannah and the team there who were excellent throughout the project. Having reliable trade suppliers who understand what you need and deliver on time makes a real difference on a job of this size and Selco came through on that front.

The sleepers were set to form the curved bed edges, retaining the ground inside and giving the beds their structure. The beds were filled with topsoil from Hallstone, a quality growing medium that gives the clients’ planting the best possible start. One of the garden beds was also edged using CoreLP to give it a clean, defined boundary that matches the lawn edging throughout the garden.

If you want to know more about how we approach garden beds and planting areas as part of a larger garden renovation, take a look at our services page here

The Patio

The entertaining area is a large sandstone patio using stone from London Stone to match the stepping stones through the pathway. Keeping the same stone throughout the design ties everything together and stops the garden from feeling like a collection of separate elements.

The patio was laid on a properly prepared base with the correct falls for drainage. It is large enough to genuinely serve as an outdoor entertaining space, which was central to the brief from the start. There is room for a table and chairs, room to move around and room to have people over without the space feeling crowded.

You can read more about our approach to patio installation and natural stone paving here.

What This Job Involved

It is worth being clear about the scale of this project. This was not a single trade job. It covered turf supply and installation, pathway design and construction in two materials, raised garden beds in timber sleepers, topsoil supply and placement, natural stone stepping stones, a large sandstone patio and edging work throughout. Everything was coordinated and installed to work together as a single cohesive design.

Jobs like this require the right suppliers and they require proper planning. We work with quality trade suppliers across the region because the materials are part of the finished product. What goes in determines what comes out.

The Result

The clients went from a blank canvas new build garden to a free flowing, fully designed outdoor space with a large lawn, generous planting beds, a natural stone pathway and an entertaining patio. It looks nothing like the plot they started with and everything like the garden they described at the beginning.

That is what a properly planned and properly installed garden renovation looks like.

If you are looking for a garden renovation in Ledbury or anywhere across Herefordshire, get in touch. We offer a free site visit and written quote with no obligation.