Raynes Park terraced garden

What was once a steep, largely unusable slope has been transformed into a garden built for actual family life — terraced to create a lawn generous enough for football, marquees and picnics, rather than just something to look at from the kitchen window. The remaining slopes, too steep to mow comfortably, were sown with perennial wildflowers instead of fighting to keep them as conventional grass — turning an awkward gradient into one of the garden's richest and most seasonal features.

At the front, a new pathway and flight of steps lead up to the door, flanked by trained fruit trees and deep borders of shrubs and perennials that soften the change in level and give the approach real presence. Around the house itself, the old terrace was stripped back and relaid with new stone paving, tying the hard landscaping together and giving the family a proper outdoor room to cook, eat and sit in.

The result is a garden the clients actually use rather than merely maintain: a lawn large enough for whatever the weekend calls for, easier and more elegant access to the front door, and borders that keep the view constantly shifting — from spring bulbs and blossom through to summer's full wildflower haze and the seedheads and grasses of early autumn.