A productive family garden in Finstock, Oxfordshire, designed around vegetable growing, water conservation and a landscape allowed to respond naturally to the seasons.

“The kitchen garden was really the starting point for the whole design. The clients wanted a substantial productive space as they moved into retirement — replacing an underused patio with planted terraces and circular spaces for family dining and grandchildren to play became the other main concept.”

“There was a considerable change in level across the site, so the garden required terracing, we decided to create walls that curved around the space creating loose planting spaces for plants and stonework to interact. Sustainability was also important to the clients. Rather than irrigating the whole garden, harvested rainwater was concentrated on the productive and more intensively planted areas, while lawns and meadows were allowed to dry naturally during periods of summer drought. The photographs therefore record the garden as it actually responds to the seasons, rather than as a landscape kept artificially green throughout the summer.”