Nigel L Philips Garden Design

Kat Zahran
5 Star
Nigel came to visit us in Jan 2020 to help us plot out how to work with our long thin garden and make the most of the space. Being a keen novice and with a tight budget / budget being gathered as I go along I was keen to work out the planting myself and do the hard landscaping as much as possible with the help of my husband. However, with a rather challenging blank(ish) slate I wanted to make sure I was going to put the right areas of the garden in the right place and not make expensive mistakes I wouldn't be able to undo down the line - and there was a lot I wanted to fit in - this was where Nigel fitted in perfectly! My extensive list of wants included seating area, greenhouse, raised bed kitchen garden, shed, borders, and a jewellers studio. As you'll see from the progress images and the planning photos we started off with a part jungle, part industrial wasteland. Upon purchasing the house we took on a totally overgrown rear which we partially cleared and re-fenced, and a really humungous triple length double garage which was totally oversized for the plot AND in poor condition and definitely not worth keeping, especially as a modern car wouldn't even fit down the side of the house to access it and we already had front parking. We had gained planning permission for a garden studio (needed planning as adjacent to an AONB of the Ashdown Forest) and also a rear extension which we needed to take into account in the garden planning. Nigel was so helpful in slotting in his knowledge with our aspirations and being able to survey and visualise where and how it could work. The concrete base from the garage is huge 13x4.5m and very very deep reinforced concrete and it was cleverly incorporated into the plan in order to not have to demolish it which would have been a very daunting gargantuan and expensive task. Overall the garden was meant to be a long term plan, though with lockdown we ended up doing a lot rather quickly as the time was suddenly available. My husband made a heroic effort and demolished the garage by himself, and we spent a few sunny days wrestling with putting a shed together. The old path down the side of the garage was loose brick and we put these to good use making the 4 raised beds and the curvy borders in the grassy area. I just about managed some crops despite these being finished late in the season and grew some good courgettes, lettuces and radishes. I even added a small wildlife pond and have attracted 2 resident frogs, Margo and Gerry :) I managed to find a second hand FAWT Nova octagonal green house which I'm about to re-glaze in polycarbonate so desperately looking looking forward to this year's growing season. I'm also daily checking for signs of the bulbs I have planted in my 'white border' and waiting to see all last years planting establish itself. This summers plan is to work properly on the seating area and I have spent some time making a paper/cardboard 3-D scale model of my dream area to flesh out that area of the plan. It received great feedback on the Gardeners World facebook page. Roll on Spring!
Wednesday 27th January 2021