This was a small landscaping project in Eastfields, Stokesley, North Yorkshire. Scott wanted a patio area to barbecue from and also a seperate patio area to dine alfreso with his family.

Both patio areas are constructed from  brown multi sandstone flags. These flags have are a slight textured surface to them and are in various brown, purple and mauve colour tones. The first thing to be done on this project was to remove the existing split faced path edgeways. Then we created a new curved path using gravel.

The patio for the barbecue area is a rectangular space with a curved edge of rustic cobbles. Curves are always more pleasing to the eye and create an illusion of more space.

Testimonial:

Hi Andy

The new patios look fantastic, we're really happy with them. We'd like you to come back and quote us for some more work we'd like doing later this year. Please thank your team on our behalf too. It's a great job!

Cheers,

Scott Godfrey. Stokesley, North Yorkshire.

Mr. Barbour, Ian, from Guisborough, Cleveland, Teesside wanted to update his tired, dated looking garden landscape. After a consultation with us, where we looked through various samples of patio stones and many different types of water features, Mr & Mrs Barbour decided to opt for Desert Sandstone for their patio area and a contemporary Granite Water Feature.

We also discussed and decided to construct a small wall and steps from split faced buff bricks and the desert sandstone. Plum coloured slate was chosen for around the water feature and coloured pebbles, these look great when wet and dry. We also decided to opt for some rustic cobbled edging around the water feature just to further enhance it and draw the eye to it from a distance.

The design of the patio was fairly straight forward. Ian had decided he wanted to keep the original cobble edging that had been round his existing patio. We laid the patio within this existing cobbled edge shape. We like to use various cuts and sizes of dessert sandstone within patios we construct. The differing sizes make the patio more attractive and interesting than using the same sizes over and over again. Dessert sand stone is a beautiful patio stone and lends itself well to being placed like this. This particular sand stone is yellow and peachy/pink tones. There are also fossils within the stone too, giving it an interesting and unusual appearance. Sandstone is a very pretty patio stone, has a smooth texture and a soft, pleasing appearance to the eye.
Testimonial:

Dear Andy & The lads,

Thank you so much for our new garden. The patio, wall, steps and water feature have made such a dramatic difference to our garden. We would recommend you and your lads to our friends any day. We were impressed with the speed you worked, your attention to detail and how helpful and caring you all were. Thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. & Mrs Barbour.
Guisborough, Cleveland, Teesside.

This landscaping job was planned,designed and constructed for a lady called Maureen. Maureen was unsure of what type of patio she wanted. We discussed and showed her various examples of our previous work. We decided on a circular two ring patio. Maureen's circular patio was built from buff york stone, the path is also buff yorkstone. The area around the patio was gravelled and a new turf lawn laid. The circular patio has been created using Buff York Stone too.

Buff York Stone is ideal for a patio, it has a great colour and texture.The path leading to the patio has been creatively crafted in an offset manner also from buff york stone. The cobble stone along the edge of the patio, beautifully enhances the curve of the path and leads the eye naturally to the circular patio.

Southern gold gravel has been carefully selected to fill in the gaps between the patio stones both on the path and the circular patio, see how it lifts the path and patio form and shape. The Southern gold gravel lifts and enhances the path and patio stone delicately but perfectly.The gravel in the background of this particular circular patio is dark grey pea gravel, again this enhances the curve of the circular patio.

Testimonial

" Dear Andy, I would like to thank you for the wonderful work you did at my house. I love my new patio and lawn. My friends love coming round and admiring my garden while drinking several glasses of wine. It's so relaxing. I can unwind after work now in my garden, which is great. I was really impressed with how neat and tidy you all were. I would never have known you were here apart from my new patio and lawn of course. Thanks again. Kind Regards, "

Maureen Patterson

Marton, Middlebrough, 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.

This is the second landscaping project we've completed for Bob and Carol. We did some landscaping work for them the previous year. It was lovely to be asked to return.

Bob and Carol were very keen for us to carry out their new landscaping project. They wanted a paved area around Bob's shed. We constructed this paved area using a buff coloured, vibrant yellow Yorkstone paving - this matched the existing patio area which we'd constructed last year. We also replaced a retaining wall.

The new retaining wall was built from, split faced buff coloured walling and Saxon buff coloured coping stones. These matched an existing wall we had built at the property last year.

This landscaping project was relatively straight forward. Once all the paving and the wall were in place all that remained for us to do was grout the paving in and then seal the paving.

We use a  water resistant, resin based sealer. We always advise that new paving or patios are sealed. This will help retain the colour of the new patio stones and protects the paving stone from weather damage.

Testimonial

" Hi Andy, Great to see you all again. Thank you for the work you carried out on our house. The wall looks great and the new paved area around the shed fits in perfectly with the patio area you did for us last year. we're both chuffed to bits!  Cheers."

Bob and Carol Armstrong

The Glebe, Norton, Stockton on Tees, Teesside.

This was a great landscaping project for us to carry out, we were really pleased with the end result. It's stunning. We were pretty much given free reign by Derek. He had looked through our porfolio during our consultation. He was happy to trust our design skills.

Derek asked me to help him choose the paving, brick and edging stones. We were happy to do this. We sat and colour matched stones with various samples until we both agreed on the sunrise sandstone paving, southern gold gravel, oatmeal brick work and cobbled edging. All excellent choices which blend perfectly with Derek's current colour scheme of his house brick work.

During consultations, Derek had specifically requested a patio area which he could retreat to. An area where he could read his papers and drink coffee on the summer mornings in peace. With this in mind we designed his patio to sit at the top of his garden. This area is secluded and very quiet.

The main patio (the retreat) and the steps leading up to this are built from the most beautiful sunrise, sand stone patio stones. This particular sandstone is absolutely amazing to look at. It's gorgeous. Extremely vibrant colours bounce out at you. The colours run through the sandstone like a rainbow. This patio stone is one of our favorites, it's a product which looks great dry and fabulous wet. It's very eye catching.

We constructed the steps which descend from the patio also from sunrise sandstone. We used the oatmeal bricks as a border to the steps. The oatmeal colour compliments and enhances the sunrise sandstone.

We designed and constructed the steps from the patio to become narrower as you walk down the patio. This gives a flowing movement to the patio and when walking up to the patio it is very inviting when the area under foot increases.

We also built a path of sunrise sandstone along the side of Derek's house. This pathway leads to another circular patio. This circular patio is outside Derek's French windows. This patio area will be used by the whole family in the Summer, They will eat breakfast together here.

As you can see, we have cut the sandstone of the path way leading to the circular patio in different sizes. We did this to add some variation to the style and design of the path. A pathway in my opinion looks more interesting when things are cut differently. Anyone can have a bog standard paved path.

We opted for Southern gold gravel at the side of the house, this compliments the sunrise sandstone path and patio. Gravel also acts as drainage.

A retaining garden wall was built all around the back of this property too. We built this from the oatmeal bricks. The lawned area of this garden was very steep and sloped. We had to build a retaining wall to hold all the earth and lawned area in.We thoroughly enjoyed this job it was great to see the changes taking place and the end result looks fantastic!

Testimonial

" Hi Andy, Many thanks for all the hard work and effort you put into my beautiful secluded retreat, it's just how I imagined it to be. I love sitting out here on a morning or evening reading my books and drinking my coffee or wine. Everybody has complimented the work and said what a huge improvement it is to the garden. Thank you for listening to me and spending the time helping me choose the right stones. I'd have been lost without you. I've never spent so much time outdoors! "

Derek Mallam

Hammond Close, Marton, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, Teesside.

Steph and Anth were really excited about having their garden landscaped. They both had some great ideas. It was fun to work with them. They wanted us to create a landscape with a difference, something interesting to look at, different from the usual patios or lawns you might see in peoples' gardens. After many chats we decided to lay their patio using sawn purest one sandstone. This is extremely beautiful natural sandstone, it has lustres of pink, peach, cream, browns and light yellow tones running through it, each stone is different to the last. This patio stone has a very romantic look to it; it's soft on the eye.

Steph and Anth asked us to create a romantic garden patio for them. They wanted somewhere to dine together on the summer evenings. They also wanted to access their patio area through a wooden rose covered archway. They even requested a heart shaped retaining wall.

We decided while designing their garden wall to echo the wall shape with the newly turfed lawn, hence the heart shaped lawn.

The retaining walls were constructed in a soft curved 'V' shape - like a love heart - how romantic and in keeping with what Steph and Anth wanted. This heart shaped raised bed has now become a colourful purple heather garden - it's stunning!

A rustic wooden archway was embedded at the edge of the patio. The patio is entered via the wooden archway. Steph is growing a beautiful deep pink climbing rose up and around the wooden archway frame. When the rose is fully established this will be an outstanding feature of their garden.

We added a twist to their patio with a cobbled antique cobble edge. This gives the patio a more graceful feel. We used the same cobbles around the edge of the turf, see how this defines the curvaceous shape of the lawn and ties in the heart theme for Steph and Anth.

We chose Southern gold gravel to lay around the patio to create texture, colour and a definitive heart shape. The gravel perfectly compliments the beautiful sandstone and the newly landscaped garden.

This was a fabulous landscaping project to carry out. Steph and Anth were really interesting, fun people to work with. We really enjoyed the design element of this landscaping project. I'm sure you'll agree it looks beautiful in reality too!

Testimonial

“To Andy, We would like to say thank you for the wonderful work you have accomplished in our garden.
Your ideas were inspiring and produced a garden we could only imagine.
We were always kept informed of every stage and asked approval of all ventures.
We can not wait till spring to enjoy our beautiful secret garden. It's beautiful!
Thank you from both of us "

Steph and Anth Wardell

Dunedin Avenue, Fairfield, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, Teesside.

This was a quite a large landscaping job. It involved a lot of landscaping design, planning and construction. Andy and Ali also wanted us to help them accessorise the completed landscape with pots and hanging flower baskets.

Andy is a very keen gardener and has a great knowledge of flowers and plants. We really enjoyed working with him on this landscaping project. We bounced lots of ideas off each other throughout the process. He was equally as enthusiastic as we came up with some stunning ideas.

After carrying out a brick match with the property, we built a new wall around the front of the propery with pillars linked by wrought iron railings. We had the railings and the gates made by a local iron monger, they were stunning quality. The new railings were built into the brick wall.

We constructed larger brick pillars on either side of the block paved driveway entrance. These were to hang their new wrought iron gates on. Andy and Ali's house is an end house. We felt it was a better idea to have more secure gates for their property. Also large iron gates give a grand and more private feel to any property.

We block paved the path around the whole of the property using brindle block paving with a flowing charcoal block paved edge. The block paved areas were laid in a 90 degree herring bone pattern, which is a traditional block paving pattern.The large driveway was also block paved using the same herring bone design in the same colour paving blocks as the paths.

We shaped the block paving at the front of the property to incorporate a flowing curve, which allowed me to give the front lawn a more interesting shape when we laid the new lawn turf.

Square turf lawns always look dull and sterile. We would always recommend giving curvaceous shape to newly laid turf where possible, it is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. New turf was laid at the side and rear of the property too.

We constructed a connecting decking area from the block paved driveway to the rear garden. This decking incorporated handrails and steps. This broke up the hard feel of the block paving and gave a more interesting look and feel to the overall design of the landscaped garden. The decking area also stood out as a feature of the newly designed and landscaped garden.

We designed various feature areas for Andy's plants and pots. We supplied Andy and Ali with a variation of my beautiful and bespoke pots for their garden. We have a wonderful selection of pots and garden accessories. They were spoilt for choice.

We fixed brackets for hanging baskets on the outer walls in various places around the property. We also built  several small feature areas in the front lawn for bedding plants and shrubs to help make the garden come alive.

When this landscaping project was completed even we were astounded. It was a total transformation of their previous garden. It looked stunning. We regularly pop past Andy and Ali's as they change their flower displays each season and really it is a superb example of how a garden can look if landscaped by a professional who knows what they are doing. I am very proud of this landscaping job and was delighted to hear it had won the garden competition they had entered.

Testimonial

Dear Andy,

My husband and I wanted to thank you and your team at Green Onion landscaping for doing a fantastic job of our block paved drive, lawn,decking, garden pots and baskets.

We absolutely love it. We can’t believe how different and beautiful it all looks. You and your team worked closely with us every step of the way and we appreciate that.

Since the job was completed, our garden looked so impressive we were actually entered into a local best garden competition and we won!

Thank you once again for all your time and commitment.

Yours sincerely,

Mr and Mrs A. Portious.

Mitford Cresent, Bishopsgarth, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, Teesside.