This garden sits within a 1980s housing estate on the Causeway Road, just outside Petersfield, built on land once belonging to the Causeway brickworks. The existing garden was little more than a concrete slab topped with paving; the brief was simple: a low maintenance space the clients could enjoy at different times of day.
Breaking ground told its own story. Beneath the slab was heavy clay with no life in it at all, likely a legacy of the brickworks, whether a clay extraction area or a dumping ground for spoil. A good amount of the heavy clay was stripped out, and channelling was worked into the subsoil to help move water down to the lower parts of the garden. A soil improver was then mixed through, and a more loamy, sand based subsoil brought in to improve drainage, both underneath and through the top planting layer. This gave the free draining conditions needed for a Mediterranean, drought tolerant planting scheme.
The garden is still in its first year, with the planting establishing. Some rearranging and refining of species is planned for this autumn as things settle in.
