Real garden
After years of hard work, Sally and Steven now have a lovely terrace garden to enjoy with family and friends
Sally and Steven spent three years creating their dream garden
When Sally and Steven moved into their house on the Sussex coast, they inherited an unusable garden space. ‘The previous owners had built a rear extension without considering how it would impact the garden, so, there was lots of outdoor space we couldn’t easily access,’ says Sally. ‘The garden’s first tier was built too close to the back of the house and slanted upwards. We had a tiny 1970s crazy paving patio and the lawn was mostly mud.’
The couple dreamed of a space that they could cook, entertain and host parties in. They made meticulous plans for it to include a dining table, an integrated barbecue and cosy seating, and picked out lots of planting in shades of yellow, pink and purple.
The project took three years, and the couple did most of the work themselves. ‘We kept chipping away at it when the weather was good: evenings after work, during holidays and through the weekend,’ says Sally. ‘We saved money but our social life and holidays were put on hold.’
Now finished, the garden is an extension of the house. ‘We practically live outside now,’ Sally says. ‘We’ve even made pizzas in the rain! We’re so looking forward to summer.’
PIZZA OVEN
To achieve the clean lines in their garden design, the couple did lots of planning at least a year in advance to get a sleek look.
They bought their pizza oven before the garden was started; that way, they could design the integrated log storage to be the same size as the oven base. ‘We love slow cooking food,’ Sally says. ‘We roast chickens and vegetables in there and we’re learning how to make bread, too. It’s great for large gatherings as you can make pizza after pizza. My aim is to cook a Christmas dinner in there one year!’
Top Tiers
Originally the garden sloped steeply up to the garage. Sally and Steven measured out different levels to make the most of every inch of space. They excavated the equivalent of eight double-decker buses’ worth of mud and hardcore. ‘We hired a digger and took turns levelling the ground. Every few weeks, a grab truck would collect several tons of mud,’ says Sally. It was turfed with artificial grass and Steven built integrated steps up to the other levels, making them look like they were floating.
OUTDOOR ENTERTAINING
‘We have lots of family living locally so we wanted room to host parties,’ says Sally. ‘One family member is in a wheelchair, and it was important to us that she could access the garden easily. That’s why we put in a large decked area.’ They used scaffold boards, stained and waterproofed with Osmo oil. ‘They don’t get slippery when wet, which makes them an ideal alternative to decking,’ Sally adds. The modular dining table with benches offers flexible seating.
Leaning wall
One of the biggest
(and costliest) elements of this project was to fix the 1930s wall that runs the length of the garden, which was leaning precariously into the street. ‘There were concerns it may collapse,’ says Sally. ‘Steven rebuilt the wall and we had a professional bricklayer to rebuild the pillars, plus a rendering company to finish it in the same style as the back of the house. It cost us £10,000 to fix.’
BUILT-IN BENCH
Carpenter Steven made the floating wooden bench from cedar wood. ‘It’s his favourite wood to work with,’ says Sally. ‘Not only does it smell nice, it also changes colour over time to a beautiful silver grey.’ The bench took a couple of weeks to make and get the dimensions just right. ‘We wanted it to look chunky and be comfy with lots of scatter cushions.’ Sally had bespoke cushions made up in showerproof fabric, which she ordered online.