Simon and Kate's new garden

What do you need to consider when you’re designing a garden from scratch?

Land Studio founder Simon Richards and his wife Kate recently sold their house to take on a building project of their own.

Nestled in the Welsh hills, their 18th century farm worker’s cottage will soon undergo renovation. But, rather than putting all their focus on how the future building will look, they have started with the garden.

Simon explains: “When you watch house renovation programmes like Grand Designs the owners typically focus all their energy on the house and the gardens are an afterthought.

“As landscape architects, with two young children, we have a garden first approach. A lot of people feel daunted at the idea of creating a garden from scratch but if you get the framework of the garden right then you’ve got years to add more plants and to lovingly build it up.

“It’s an exciting process. We’ve planted Welsh and English Oaks, Cherry and Mountain Ash as standards ready for smaller stock to infill over the coming months. And it has been great to get the children involved.”

*Look out for more updates on Simon and Kate’s won garden design project in our monthly newsletters and Instagram @land_studio