Client Brief

A longstanding client had an overgrown front garden border adjoining the next-door boundary fence.  In replacing an old water pipe to the house, the border was cleared of plants and mature shrubs and left bare.

The client requested planting with an oriental theme.

I was given a modest budget to purchase plants, the only request was that it should include a Japanese maple.

Hard Landscaping

The only element of hard landscaping was the laying of five reclaimed decorative stones, one of which required a fork-lift truck to load into my van.

Planting

Taking the Japanese garden brief the following plants were purchased:

Trees-

Acer palmatum;

Pinus mugo ‘La Cabana’;

Shrubs-

Mahonia media ‘Winter Sun’;

Nandina domestica ‘Red Light’;

Osmanthus heter ‘Tricolor’;

Pieris japonica ‘Little Heath’;

Rhododendron cosmopolitan;

Sarcococca saligna   x2;

Sarcococca hookeriana ‘digyna’ “Purple Stem”;

Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’;

Grass type plants-

Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’  x5;

Ophiopogon nigrescens   x3;

Phormium ‘Black in Black’;

Ferns-

Dryopteris atrata;

Dryopteris atrata ‘Cristata the King’;

Ground cover-

Juniperus procumbens ‘Nana’

Leptinella  x3.