“We wanted the garden to be low-maintenance and reflect the local area”
Sophie and Nick didn’t set out to make an eco garden on their coastal plot, but the drive for simplicity and desire to utilise the local environment has achieved stunning results
When Sophie and her husband Nick wanted to design a garden for their newly built family home on the Suffolk coast, they were working with several challenges – sandy foundations and saltladen winds from the North Sea chief among them. Although Sophie works for a climatechange trust, their primary goal was to create a low-maintenance, family-friendly garden that would reflect the local environment, especially the beach. With the help of a local garden designer, they achieved their goals and in the process created a garden with climate change at its heart.
What was the garden like before you moved in?
The house and the garden were completely different. Our first job was to set about rebuilding the house. The house had been given a small plot of land and a bank had been built up around that had grasses on it. In a couple of the earlier designs, the house was going to be built out of the bank, but then we decided it was too expensive – and we didn’t know anything about housebuilding!
Originally, it had a bigger front garden and a smaller back garden, but in the end we decided to level the area and build the house in the middle, giving us a more equal garden at the front and the back.
Did you set out to create an ecologically friendly garden?
We are away from the house a lot and I knew that when we came here, I wanted to be able to have an escape and not be nagging anybody to do things. It also relates back to the house – we bought it because it had a beautiful plot of land and we thought it worthwhile knocking
down the old house and building something new, even though we’re on an eroding part of the coast. What we didn’t take into account was what we were building onto, which is basically sand – at one point we didn’t think we’d be able to build the house at all! It was a challenge, so when we finally came to the garden, I wanted everything that went into it to work with the site and fit in with the surroundings.
So, easy-going was your top priority and an environmentally-friendly garden was the bonus?
Yes, in terms of how it looked, the two main concerns were that it was low maintenance and that it ref lected the local area. We didn’t want the garden to use too much water, but that originally came from the fact that we weren’t going to be here all the time and it had to look after itself.
Although we didn’t set out specifically to create an eco-garden, if you source local and keep it fitting with local surroundings and eco-systems, you are protecting the environment by the very nature of what you’re doing. It’s a no-brainer, and what we should be doing without thinking. Rather than imposing our will to get exactly what we want, whether it works in the environment we’re in or not, we should work with nature rather than against it.
The one thing that’s not very environmentally friendly about this garden is the lawn, because we water it. But we use it all the time: we play badminton and the kids are always doing gymnastics on it. It just would have been a very different garden without it.
Did the challenges of your plot lead you to work with a garden designer?
Yes, I wanted somebody who would understand the local environment, right down to the fact that we have tonnes of rabbits everywhere! A friend of mine who’s a garden designer helped us understand what we could do in each area. Around the back, we wanted a lot more grass that runs into the beach area and to have things a bit simpler. She moved away though and that’s when we asked Sue to design the front garden.
Which parts of the garden are your favourites?
The front is where all the planting is, and we get people coming up the street who, when I talk to them, will say, “Ooh, the first thing we do when we come here is to take a look at your garden”.
I love to sit at a little table that gets the sun around 5pm – it’s a very quiet, calm place. Even though this is the front garden and the views are just of the street and bungalows, having all this lovely planting means your eyes are drawn into the garden and not beyond it. I also really love the fence I had made that’s based on one at The Hive in Kew Gardens – it doesn’t detract from the view of the sea, which is the main appeal of the back garden.
It is always worth looking at which plants are thriving in your local area