Garden Design and Build

Terraced yard... before and after

A typical terraced back yard: dark and dingy with drab stone walls and bare concrete for the floor. The outside toilet and shed were removed and a new gate fitted. The walls were rendered and painted with white masonary paint and then imitation York Stone flags were laid. The addition of some planters and a patio set completed the transformation.

Semi - detached house .... before and after

This was an extremely over grown garden in need of much TLC. After cutting back the hedges and shrubbery a substancial amount of limestone was found which was then incorporated into the rockery. Neal then started on the lower patio and steps.

A very pleasant surprise was the red acer on the right!

This is the same garden viewed from the opposite angle

One of the finished patios

This is the finished top patio, cobbles were used to frame the patio, lawn and path to add definition

The bottom patio

Note the beautiful variance in colours that Indian Sandstone can give you

Curved Steps

Cobbled Sets

Cobbled sets can be used to break up a large expanse of patio and add texture and interest.

. These are charged extra per set.

Cobbled Set - close up

Large paved area

This very large area has been softened with a pebbled area.

Note the clever use of galvanised inlaid pavior to disguise the inspection cover (bottom left)

Bungalow terrace gets a new lease of life

Out with the old brick steps, wall and concrete flagged terraced area.

Work in progress...

The new retaining wall and steps have been built and work has started on the main patio.

...The finished space

Steps, walls and new terrace all completed in Indian Sandstone

Making a feature from an eye sore

This huge scotch pine was too big to be removed and the owner decided they wanted to keep it. The top was lopped to about 10ft and all the dead branches removed. Neal built an oval retaining wall around the base with coping stones that were wide enough to sit on. The area within the wall was planted with azaleas and bedding plants and clematis, wisteria and virginia creeper were trained to grow up the trunks.

Quite a focal point!

Summer House on raised bed

Raised bed with water feature

The owner of this garden wanted a raised bed in which to grow vegetables. Neal built the bed from natural stone and cobbled sets were used to add contrast to the raised area and frame the water feature.

This picture shows an area that has been cleared ready for the flags to be laid. The finished area shows a neat use of cobbles to finish the tops of the retaining walls.

Here we can see a finished patio area with low retaining wall and steps to area behind garage.

These Indian Sandstone flags are from the gold collection; showing a mixture of camel dust and desert sand. The flag in the centre shows fossilised ferns.

This patio has been flagged with desert sand, camel dust and raj green Indian Sandstone.

Steps to the front of the house leading to the raised patio above.

To see more examples of Neal Smith's garden designs click HERE or use the link at the top of the page.