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Medal winning garden design by Heather Ritter.
Tel: 01622 762764
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For a consultation contact Heather: 01622 762764
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Design, landscaping and planting
The Design Process 1. Visit clients to discuss ideas, favourite materials and plants, likes and dislikes, suggestions
and information on design for hardscape and softscape. 20% deposit
required before any design work begins. 2. Site
survey, soil analysis, measurements, photos and levels taken. 3.
Return with first draft plans showing hardscape, lawns, planting and seating areas. (also, if required, ponds, pergolas,
arbours, statuary, planting containers, sculptures and ironwork). Discuss, select and make amendments. 4. Third visit to present masterplan, which will be drawn with watercolours.
This gives a complete picture of materials for hard landscaping and will show quantity and colour of plants and all other
features. Full payment of outstanding balance required on presentation
of masterplan. 5. Advice sheets are presented in a folder listing
all plants with information on their origin, appearance, eventual size and care advice, such as pruning and feeding notes.
Above: This garden design
has five distinct areas:
All the plans and photos used in this website are from
projects that Heather's Gardens have designed. Heather also supervised the construction and planting of these gardens
to final completion. (except for A Romantic Topiary Garden where the hard-landscaping was already in place) Below: A Small Town Garden A small garden designed for flexible outdoor entertaining. The rotary washing line can be removed to provide an additional seating area for table and chairs. Heather's signature planting includes Artemisia ludoviciana 'Valerie Finnis'.
Planting (requiring separate costing) I can source, select and arrange delivery of plants; supervise planting to completion
of project; organise the supply and installation of irrigation and lighting systems. Plant Warranty Only available
if Heather's Gardens has supplied and planted the stock. I guarantee that all plants will be healthy when planted. Responsibility cannot be accepted for loss after
planting because subsequent site conditions are beyond my control. The client must maintain the site properly. However,
provided the planting has been maintained in accordance with the advice notes, consideration will be given to replacement
of any material found to be defective during the first growing season if notified by the client in writing and inspected by
Heather's Gardens. Watercolour Masterplans
Designs for long, narrow gardens and small challenging spaces.
Below:
All plans and drawings are hand-drawn by Heather using pencil, black
ink and watercolour. Plans are drawn to scale showing hard and soft landscaping and all other features. Heather also produces
plans to scale, in black ink for the preliminary/concept plan and for the landscaper's plan with detailed dimensions.
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The Watercolour Masterplan for 'a garden for pottering'
Heather likes the freedom of drawing by hand.
A Family Garden including an ornamental
vegetable parterre
To help clients visualise their new garden, Heather includes
a detailed description, with the master plan, of how a new garden will eventually look.
The following is part of a description for a client, which included detailed information about planting, hard-landscaping, features, and structures within the garden. The transition from the formal garden to the rest of the garden is provided by two winding paths that lead from the last ornamental square.When looking from the house straight up the central path to the last square, two beautiful standard, silver weeping pears can be seen. They flank an area for siting a sculpture or statue, an important focal point from the house. This feature can be uplit. This garden provides two pictures; one for winter and one for summer. In winter, the solid green topiary shapes will give the garden structure and colour. In summer, grasses, colourful perennials and ground cover will give an entirely different picture, with splashes of colour and movement in the grasses. The golden oat grass, stipa gigantea will reach six feet in a season, providing an airy haze mixed with tall verbena bonariensis.Also offering height and vibrant colour are yellow achillea 'cloth of gold' and bright scarlet 'lucifer'. Near the front of the garden yet more colour is provided by the day lily, hemerocallis, and brick-red and white penstemons. At the central path, running horizontally towards the semi-circular seating areas, pink and cream paeonias mixed with nepeta, also known as cat mint, and billowing geraniums will soften the paths edges. The tropical garden is made of a network of five natural stone circles with connecting paths. Each circle has a feature of either marbles, pebbles or broken ceramics. Two also have motion-sensitive water fountains. Visitors will discover the fun/tropical garden by entering through tall planting, which once fully grown will hide what is ahead. Screens of bamboo help to disguise the route. Each circle will have fibre optic white lights or small coloured lights fitted into the circle base. Light sticks would be good placed in the tall planting. As requested, there is a water feature near the tropical hut. One suggestion is a large terracotta urn or ginger jar with a pump inside. The water would gently trickle down the sides with a collection of cobbles and pebbles at its base. This is a very simple idea but always effective and child friendly. When leaving the tropical garden, via an avenue of pear trees, you come to the contemporary garden. This garden will be breathtaking with its smooth contemporary lines, quiet masculinity and contemplative Japanesesque style. The oriental theme is enforced by two large lime-green acers planted either in containers or in the ground. Japanese holly, cloud topiary trained trees and box globes, planted in the two central beds with a mulch of Japanese green pebbles, complete the design. The paving is polished white limestone, sawn cut, to give a contemporary style. In the centre of the garden is a limestone bench. A feature gate, perhaps in an oriental style, will complement the design. Boundary planting provides colour and interest. Viburnum opulus, the guelder rose, gives all year interest, lace-cap flowers, maple-shaped leaves and glossy bright red berries, glorious autumn colour with leaves turning orange and red. Rosa glauca has grey-blue stems that contrast with the pretty pink blooms. There are two sambucus racemosa 'sutherland's gold' on the boundary. This is the golden-leaved elder, a beautiful shrub with delicate filigree foliage and red berries. Four viburnum 'Eve Price' provide flowers in winter and an evergreen foil to highlight other plants. Mahonia 'Lionel Fortesque' is an excellent evergreen shrub with dramatic shaped leaves. It benefits from yellow flowers in winter and early spring, followed by berries beloved by the birds. The grass garden has as a centrepiece a large grouping of amemathele lessoniana called pheasant grass. This is a wonderful evergreen grass that sways in a breeze to create movement. A stonemarket circle in the centre with a dragonfly detail has timber boardwalks radiating from its outer ring. The design has been created to provide many areas of interest just waiting to be discovered. Several seating areas enable the plants and structural features to be viewed from different aspects within the garden. It is intended to be timeless and elegant while providing lots of excitement for this family, who I hope will appreciate and enjoy it for many years to come. By Heather Ritter |
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