The clients had bought the house next door and sectioned off part of the extensive garden for their own use. They wanted a design that would make sense of the new L-shape, different levels and the existing swimming pool. The country garden is on the edge of Epping Forest in Essex, with mature beech, birch and oak trees all around. The new garden design needed both to sit comfortably in the landscape and complement the modern extension to the house.

The design centres on a magnificent, multi-stemmed Griselinia littoralis, which had been concealed behind shrubs and fences. Reshaped into an arch, its twisted trunk becomes the focal point of the stepped porcelain pathways from the house terrace up to the pool. It also provides a vista across the garden, with an avenue of flowering ornamental pear trees and clipped beech hedging. This leads the eye towards the sundial sculpture and a large, informal perennial border at the end of the garden. A circular bench around the mature Swedish birch tree provides a point of shady tranquillity.

A separate garden plan created an allotment area with a greenhouse and raised beds, expansive new shrub borders and an outside building.