“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.”

— Gertrude Jekyll

How, you may ask, can a garden be any kind of ‘teacher’, let alone a ‘grand’ one? We’ve all had moments where an outdoor space is nothing more than a nuisance, an eyesore, and a problem to be solved. We at Rob Hardy & Co. can sympathise with those suffering from badly behaved gardens and, if you’re currently in that position, Jekyll’s statement can seem truly baffling. It’s worth considering however that Jekyll was a horticulturist, garden designer, writer and artist of the late Victorian and Edwardian period who dedicated much of her life to gardens and garden design. She has written extensively and with flair on the subject. Her aim, therefore, with this colourful quote is to challenge our attitude towards our outdoor spaces and to communicate to us that we might do better to work with our gardens, rather than on them.

In this article, we talk about how this approach towards working with your outdoor space informs the first stage of our process - site analysis. This is an integral early stage of our professional design process, which we carry out just after we’ve done a topographical survey. At the site analysis stage, we take photographs and notes that help us to develop our concept design, for example identifying which trees should be retained or removed, taking soil samples and highlighting areas of the garden that could be enhanced. As such, we draw inspiration from the words of Gertrude Jekyll and let the garden be our teacher.

Photo of a garden design site mid-build — *What can this garden teach us?*

Arriving on site.

We’re here at a large rural site on the outskirts of Leeds in West Yorkshire to carry out a site analysis. It’s one of our favourite parts of the design process, how could it not be? We stand at the beginning of our journey to the creation of something beautiful. It’s time to start work.

Garden design site mid-build — *Transformation underway*

Looking around.

As we walk across the site, the air is fresh to the point of being heady. By and large, this outdoor space looks more like a building site than someone’s dream garden, but in all honesty, a building site is exactly what it is. That is, for the moment at least.

We’re working with an architecture firm for this project; their designs are already being implemented and the barn renovation and extension to this grand Yorkshire home are well underway. Amid the building tools and machinery spread around the site, we take time to absorb our surroundings and notice how this space looks, sounds, and feels. An earthy smell lingers - the topsoil is freshly turned. It’s still early in the morning, so the excavator remains silent. All we can hear is the rustle of tree branches in the breeze and - faintly - the song of a skylark shimmering over the gently rolling hills.

Standing at this point in the garden and looking out from the house over the glorious landscape, you get a sense that this view hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. You are just the next person in the cycle of those who will see it this way.

Garden site build patio laying — *Immerse yourself in your surroundings*

Getting a sense of the space.

No matter how full the diary gets or how busy the office is, we always feel excitement when it comes to site analysis. To fully engage our senses, we have to slow down. Focus. This is what Jekyll meant when she talked about a garden teaching “patience and careful watchfulness”. We have to look and really notice what we’re seeing. Which of these trees do we need to keep and which ones could be removed? Where is the natural focal point of the garden and how could we highlight this? What colours or materials would really complement the surroundings and make the garden look as if it were always meant to look like this?

We observe.

We take account of the levels of the site: raised areas, slopes and dips. We make notes on the soil, the atmosphere, the light, the position of the sun, how exposed or sheltered it is from the wind and the site’s particular weather conditions. In addition, we research how the site has historically been used and how this has affected it over time.

As well as these essential practical considerations, we wait to notice those intangible things which exist just beyond where we can see, hear or touch them, until we sense them, right at the edge of consciousness.

It’s certainly a challenge to try to see beyond what is already here. At this site, for example, part of the garden was previously split in two, with one half in use as a paddock. Although once we’ve removed the paddock we’ll be left with a large space with amazing potential, there’s always a strange instinct to replicate what you’ve seen. To avoid this natural aversion to change, we have to intentionally engage with the space in order that we can best imagine how to design in harmony with it rather than trying to impose upon it.

View up a garden from the bottom corner. You can see grass, trees and the house — *How can we best design for this space?*

Considering a site’s potential.

For us as garden designers, the physical features of the land – the steepness of slopes, and the height of elevated areas – are our artist’s materials. We’ll draw with stone and wood, and paint with plants. One of the things we find most intriguing about our craft is that we are not only striving to create something beautiful, but we are also looking for ways to design a space which is fit for purpose and functions in the way the client wants.

So, here’s our dilemma: balancing creativity and imagination with demands and constraints. What can we do with this slope, for example? Should we remove it with hard landscaping? Or perhaps adopt a lighter touch, for instance by designing a planting plan to transform the slope into a beautiful, colourful feature of your outdoor space?

These are the choices we need to make, informed by clients’ needs. This is why, at the point at which we start to design your dream garden, it’s essential we have accurate measurements of the site. We will need widths, lengths and heights; we must have soil analysis and detailed lists of the stone and wood already in use on the site. For the site we are visiting today, we are obliged to take into consideration the suggestions made for the redesign of the house and barn by the architects and, most importantly, the clients. We then have to ensure that our design for this site’s outdoor space respects these suggestions. Indeed, we find that by collaborating in this way, we are creating indoor and outdoor spaces that are two exquisitely complementary parts of a cohesive whole.

Driveway and garages of a house mid-design project — *Design in line with a site’s existing features - such as beautiful Yorkshire stone!*

Preserving history and character.

During the site analysis, we take note of the site's character and individuality: if you lived here, what specific features would you tell your friends to give them a sense of the place? At this site, for example, the aged Yorkshire sandstone stays in the mind. There’s a gorgeous sandstone courtyard and, where once these sturdy walls would have protected farmhands from the wind as they worked, this space will now make for the perfect suntrap. It will be the ideal place for the current homeowners to drink coffee and read a book, all the while conserving the site’s character and history.

There’s another example on this site of a garden redesign making the most of a space’s existing features. Here, the lovely old barn is being renovated into a large family home.

We acknowledge the feelings evoked by the site: is there a sense of tranquillity or chaos, wildness or formality? The client’s home we’re visiting today is situated in a part of Yorkshire where the countryside is gentle; the hills gently undulate and none of the slopes are alarmingly steep in the way they are for example, in Ilkley where the land rises onto the moors (Look at this design to see how we worked with that particular garden…). So the design for this site will make the most of the serene environment and wide open spaces, for instance by designing the garden to make the most of the stunning views across the countryside.

Again, we see how the garden teaches us to engage with the world around us and about the many options that exist for how we live in and move through a particular space.

Arch over a driveway — *Well-designed access and circulation means your outdoor space has style AND substance.*

Checking access and circulation.

Now that we’ve got a hand on how to work with the clients’ gardens in terms of aesthetic and material aspects, it’s time to consider how we design an outdoor space which works with our clients’ needs. In other words, our job is to design a garden which is fit for purpose. This purpose may be as a safe and private space for a young family, as a luscious but low-maintenance summer garden for a summer garden for relaxing or as the ideal social space for outdoor entertaining. Other key considerations for the design of a functional space are the number of people who will use this outdoor space, at what time of the day and year, and whether they have particular access requirements. Creative approaches to the placement of the site’s access points and pathways help us plan the flow of movement within the garden, enabling us to perfectly place entry points, enhance views, create privacy and improve connections to other areas of the property.

Mug of coffee on a wooden table — *We want to design an outdoor space that will become an extension of someone’s home.*

Reaching for the sketch pad.

The site analysis is complete: we’ve taken measurements and notes, taken any samples required and met the client. This means we leave the site with an info pack that will form the basis of our concept design, the second and most exciting stage of our garden design process. This is where we come up with an idea for how we can design your garden. We make suggestions for materials, structure, and key plants so that you get a full picture of what the garden could look like.

It’s the longest day of the year, and as we drive back to the office with the rest of summer stretching before us. Generally, we find that late summer is a busy period for us at Rob Hardy and Co. as people spend more time in their gardens and realise that their gardens could benefit from a redesign.

There’s something irresistible about transforming your garden and letting it be your teacher. This is the part of the process where the garden starts to teach us about ‘patience’ and ‘trust’; the plants that will grow in your new garden will need time to do just that, grow. Your ideal space will take some time to develop, as the building is done or as the trees and flowers settle in and begin to reach their full heights and widths. For us, this is one of the joys of the design process: we work to create something beautiful and something designed to endure. We always try to ensure that our clients are involved in the process as much as possible and hope that they can experience the same excitement and joy we feel when involved in this creative, transformative process. Your home and its outdoor space are altered and evolve. Somehow, somewhere in this process, a part of you is too.

If you’re considering a garden redesign and want more advice on how a site analysis could help get you the garden of your dreams, get in touch for a friendly consultation.

Site analysis: balancing creativity with constraints