This landscaping project is a real favourite of ours.

We got a call from Alan and Jan asking us to give them some ideas about what they could do with their eye sore of a garden. It was a new build house in Norton, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland. Their existing rear garden which consisted of mainly mud and not much else.

They had a few paving stones along the back of the house, but wanted the whole area to be modern and useable, with turf, patios, raised beds for planting and some new close board fencing.

There's nothing like a blank canvas to fire up the imagination!

The landscape of the garden had a downward slope which made it ideal for a split level patio and because of the split level we were able to encorporate a long raised flower bed, at the end of which we put steps down to the lower level patio. Which would also be where the new turf would be laid for the lawn.

We carried out a brick match for the raised flower bed and then sat with Alan and Jan to make a choice for the paving stones. They went with Sunrise sandstone.

We then put in the wall foundations for the raised flower bed, then built the wall up to the height required and finished it off with a Sunrise sandstone coping stone. This now gave us our split level garden to design and landscape.

We then put a stretch of close board fencing along the left hand side of the property as a boundry partition.

The next step was to build up the bases for the lower patio and newly turfed lawn area and level them off, ready for paving stones and turf respectively. We then laid the lower patio and cut a long, sweeping arc out of the left hand side, almost in a horse shoe shape. This meant that the turf could be built in to the patio and give an oval shape to the lawn. We put a double cobbled edge around the turf just to give it a funky finish. We left a border at the other side of the turf and planted a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree and a purple flowering lilac bush.

We then started on the top patio using the same Sunrise sandstone paving stones. This was a standard rectangular patio which was far more straight forward to lay than the lower patio. We decided to finished the patio edge against the wall off with a row of cobbles and a gravel strip using York Gold gravel.

The photos will give you a better idea of the work, so take a peek!

Testimonial

"The job looks fantastic Andy, we're really happy. It looks a world away from when you first started the job. We've passed your card on to a friend. Cheers to you and your lads for all your fantastic work!"

Alan Heatherington

Norton, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, Teesside.

This is a commercial landscaped garden project undertaken at Aspen Gardens - A residential care home in Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, Teesside.

Charis Gracey, the centre manager chose Green Onion Landscaping to carry out the landscaping project from a list of contractors who had given in tenders and  quotations.

Me and the team were honored to carry out this landscaping project and had really hoped we would be given the opportunity to help improve the residents daily lives. We know how important it is for elderly people to feel independent. We had chatted with several of the residents when we had visited the site to cost the job. They were really eager to have their new garden with raised flower beds and an area they could sit and chatter in the summer.

During our consultation, Charis explained that the residents would like a large paved patio to sit on, on the warm Summer days. They wanted somewhere outside where they could gather and chatter as well as admire their own planted flowers and tend to the vegetables they planned on growing.

Some of the elderly residents used to be keen gardeners, they were excited at the prospect of having the opportunity to have green fingers again.

They needed a low maintenance garden area where they would be able to grow vegetables and flowers. They were really enthusiastic about being able to keep their independence by doing some gardening in the place where they live. We decided that three raised beds would be built. These could be used for plants and vegetables.

The patio area was built directly off an existing paved area using the same paving stones - Buff Saxon- which are a yellow paving stone. The raised flower and vegetable beds had to be positioned in such a way that the residents could access them on all sides with wheel chairs and walking frames - raised beds are excellent for elderly or disabled people - there is no need for them to bend to reach the flowers or vegetables.

We built the raised beds at a height which allowed the wheelchair users of Aspen Gardens to work at them comfortably when planting or tending to the vegetables and flowers in the raised beds.

We edged the patio area with curved topped buff pin kerbs to give it a neat professional finished look. The pin kerbs also prevent wheelchair users from rolling off the sides of the patio in their chairs. Small gaps were left intermittently in the pin kerbs to allow for drainage. The raised beds were filled with top soil and compost ready for the residents to begin planting.

We also layed a new lush green turf for the residents, this extended right around the newly laid patio area and looked beautiful and green, it perfectly completed the landscape for them.

This landscaping job appeared in the Stockton News magazine. A copy of the article can be read in the News section of our website. We were delighted with the end result of this job and it was an absolute pleasure seeing the faces of the residents when it was officially opened for them. We were chuffed to bit for them. They were all so pleased to have an area where they would be able to do some gardening work of their own.

Testimonial

“The tenants are really enthusiastic about the project and they can’t wait to the planting started. We have a number of keen gardeners living here and this is a fabulous opportunity for them to continue a hobby they enjoy and we are sure the garden will bring pleasure to all our tenants now and in the future. The flower beds and patio look really fantastic. Thank you Andy and your team for your wonderful work.”

Charis Gracie - Services and Facilities Manager

Aspen Gardens, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, Teesside.

This landscape garden was a little bit different. The customer, Chris, wanted to re-design and implement a new patio area at the rear of his house but wanted it to be a surprise for his wife's birthday. This meant building the patio, retaining walls, raised beds and steps whilst his wife was away on business.

This gave me just over a week to start and complete the entire job! It also meant starting and finishing on very specific dates and working to a tight schedule.

Chris said his wife had always longed for something a little bit different in her garden, she had a love of butterflies and dragonflies. She has always wanted a circular patio feature that would stand out from the garden.

We chose Ral Green Sandstone paving for the patio area, this has nicely understated green, grey and taupe brown colours in it. We also suggested a dragonfly patio centre piece as the patio's focal feature and it is a circular patio. We felt sure that Chris's wife would love this. Chris agreed. A large, colourful, graceful dragonfly in the middle of the patio would be ideal for his wife, so that's what we did!

On either side of the patio we put in two sweeping, raised flower beds with retaining walls and between them I constructed a step to give access to the newly  turfed area which was on a higher level. The steps were topped off with Raj Green sandstone paving.

We managed to get the landscaping job completed before Chris's wife, Jane returned home from her business trip, much to her surprise and delight!

Testimonial

"Hi Andy. I just wanted to let you know how incredibly happy and grateful both me and Jane are for the amazing job you did of transforming our garden. The patio is brilliant. Jane loves the dragonfly feature. It looks incredible! Jane nearly fainted when I showed her it. This is one surprise she will never forget, that's all down to you. Thank you so very much."

Chris and Jane Bullock

Yarm, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland,Teesside.