Hide a playhouse in a sensory garden

WHO: Tim Austen Garden Designs, (0404) 66827; timaustengardendesigns.com

WHAT: This Greystones garden belonging to Gordon Elliott and his family is a long, relatively narrow space of roughly 60m x 12m. It was divided into two, with overgrown plants and trees hiding the view down the garden and two pergolas also tucked away in the lower end, while in the upper end, there was a pint-sized patio that didn’t work for family activities and entertaining. The Elliotts wanted a garden that would work for entertaining friends, and provide a play area for their children and that would relocate a pre-existing Wendy House from the end to the centre of the garden in a way that would be secluded but also allow them to keep an eye on the children. Tim Austen re-sited the Wendy House in the centre of a perennial planting scheme. He opened up the garden and linked the upper and lower parts with a pathway that curves temptingly through the length of the garden. “I’m very much about trying to make a garden interesting and adventurous for children and giving them elements that send them exploring. I loved to explore secret gardens and get lost in the plants when I was a child,” says Tim. So he planted lavenders, herbs and grasses, and here and there wild strawberries that the children could discover in among the flowers. “For an adult the planting is waist high, but for a child, it is head high. They can run their hands along the grasses and lavender as they pass through and the herbs will release their scents, they can taste them, and the strawberries are edible too. They can collect sticks and interact with nature and develop their own creative play.” He also extended the patio into a larger wood and stone deck that gave the family room for entertaining and eating outdoors.

COST: Approx €35,000.