Sourcing materials locally around Bristol and the South West
Bristol and the wider South West have an unusually varied building tradition, and it is written into the geology. Gardens here look right when they draw on the same materials as the walls and streets around them.
Sourcing locally is partly an environmental decision and partly an aesthetic one. Stone, brick and plants that come from the region sit comfortably in it.
Stone with a local accent
Pennant sandstone underlies much of Bristol and shows up in garden walls, kerbs and paving across the city. Limestones from the Mendips and the Bath area, and blue lias further south, give a different colour and a different feel again.
Matching the stone in a garden to the stone in the buildings around it is the simplest way to make new work look like it has always been there. It is worth taking a walk around the streets near a site before choosing anything.
Reclamation yards and salvage
The region has a strong reclamation trade in brick, setts, flags, cobbles, slate and timber. Reclaimed material takes longer to specify because stock is finite and inconsistent, so it pays to buy early, buy the whole quantity at once and design around what is available rather than ordering to a drawing.
Salvage is also the honest answer to matching old brickwork. New brick made to look weathered almost never matches; reclaimed brick from the same era usually does.
Plants grown in the same climate
Plants raised in British nurseries, ideally in similar conditions to the site, establish faster and are less prone to arriving with imported pests and diseases. Asking where a plant was actually grown, rather than where it was bought, is worth the question.
For trees and hedging, home-grown and local-provenance stock is increasingly available and generally the better bet for long-term health.
Timber, aggregate and the unglamorous parts
The same logic applies to the parts nobody photographs. Locally milled timber, regional aggregate and gravel, and reclaimed hardcore all reduce the distance a garden has to travel before it exists.
Sourcing nearby also makes problems easier to solve. A supplier half an hour away can be visited, questioned and revisited when a batch does not match.
Written by George Hughes-Stanton of GHS Spaces, a landscape design practice based in Bristol. See the projects or get in touch.