Five Garden Makeovers Before And After

Be inspired by these amazing garden makeovers from Silver Birch gardens. 

The SilverBirch Gardens team take great pride in their garden makeovers. From the garden design process to the final finishing touches we aim to build top quality gardens that will bring joy to all who use them.

For this article, we’re showcasing just five recent projects. These garden makeovers have made an enormous difference in terms of aesthetics, usability and their owners’ wellbeing.

Let’s take a look.

Family Garden In Chiltern Polden

This garden was looking a little tired. True, it had a spacious lawn for the children to play on, but there was nothing to entice the adults outdoors and nowhere to eat, relax or entertain.

Of all the garden makeovers we’ve been privileged to work on, this was one of the most rewarding.

The project involved re-contouring the garden and building retaining walls so that the once sloping garden became a multi-level space.

A large patio beside the house is framed by raised beds full of exotic looking plants and beautifully lit for evening use. Sturdy steps lead to an inviting lawn area with a luxuriously furnished timber pergola offering a second seating area. As the sun sets, the garden truly comes to life with ambient lighting that creates a wonderful place for entertaining and/or contemplation.

The clients were delighted with the outcome and honestly – so was the team.

Front Garden Transformation

This traditionally built home was blessed with a very big front garden which was laid to lawns.  The family loved the setting of their house but really needed more parking space and felt that the current layout was quite dated.

 

Dan felt very strongly, as he does with most garden makeovers, that it was important to retain the character of the property whilst giving the garden a facelift. He designed the driveway so that it would be elegant and instantly draw the eye towards the house. Although the lawn is much smaller now, it’s still very much an integral part of the garden design.

The boundary fence, once a boring timber construction the same as most fences in Somerset, has become an architectural triumph. Alternating sections of horizontal cedar planks and stone filled gabion baskets serve to lift the entire property into the twenty first century.

Newbuild Garden In Burnham On Sea

Newbuild gardens are more or less a blank canvas. This one certainly was! Consisting of a perimeter fence, three shrubs and an expanse of grass it was neither practical nor attractive.

 

When Dan from SilverBirch Gardens was invited to carry out one of his epic garden makeovers in the space, he knew exactly what was needed.

The clients were finding lawn care tiresome. They also needed somewhere to sit out in the garden and a shed for storage and hobbies. But most of all, they wanted more interesting features in their garden. And who can blame them for that?!

This isn’t the biggest back garden in the world so rather than clutter it with too many “extras”, Dan decided to make the paving into a feature.

Just look how the different shapes and textures within the paved areas create all year round interest. And the only maintenance it needs is an occasional sweep with a broom!

Changing the colour of the fence completely changed the feel of this garden. It’s gone from drab to vibrant in (almost) an instant. A neat seating area is carefully positioned so that it cannot be seen from neighbouring properties. More importantly, sitting on that bench you can’t see the houses behind, it feels as though you are in your own little world. 

A manageably sized planting border brings life into the garden. And that lovely curved wall divides the space into zones. Our clients were surprised how much bigger it made their garden feel.

We think this is great solution for a small back garden, but has it inspired you to change your outdoor spaces? Call us if you’d like your plot redesigned.

A Secret Garden In Edington

Have you ever dreamed of having your own secret garden? Somewhere for reading, meditation and being surrounded by nature? It was an absolute joy to transform this unused large area of grass into a pretty garden reminiscent of a monks’ cloister.

The brief here was to make full use of the ancient walls surrounding the garden to create a spot that is both secluded and sunny.

Dan specified natural materials to match the age and the style of the walls. He used limestone setts for the hard surfaces and seasoned timber for the walkways.

The stars of this garden makeover are the unique layout and of course the plants. In these images the plants had barely settled in, but over time they will erupt into a cacophony of colour and scent. This will become a paradise for local wildlife and a wonderful retreat for the homeowners.

For more pictures of this paradise garden, head over to our portfolio pages.

Forest Garden

If you’re a follower of our Facebook page, you’ll likely have seen the pictures of this, one of our most recent garden makeovers.

Shaded gardens are so often written off as having limited potential but Dan at SilverBirch Gardens completely disagrees. “There’s nothing so lovely as a garden surrounded by woodland. It has a calm serenity that’s impossible to replicate on a housing estate and the play of sunlight and shadow means that the space changes from minute to minute.”

 

Dan’s first though when designing this garden in Woolavington was to forget about trying to grow a lawn. Although this plot is quite sunny at certain times of the day, the existing lawn was clearly not thriving. Which meant that the garden was muddy and uninviting.

The clients have quite modern tastes and wanted a contemporary styled garden where they could entertain family and friends with pride. As ever, with one of Dan’s garden makeovers, they were not disappointed.

That soggy lawn has been replaced by a state of the art porcelain patio protected from the elements by a stylish aluminium pergola.  Raised planting beds double as built in seating and planting palette is all about movement and sound.

Pride of place however is the water feature. It’s set into a living wall to create a real talking piece. The sound of moving water, the contrast between light and shade and the overall styling have truly exceeded the clients’ expectations.

Click here for more pictures of this amazing garden