Before & After: 5 Unbelievable Garden Transformations
Are you planning to revamp your outdoor space? If you're short of inspiration, look no further
The creative vision of a good designer or landscape architect can be invaluable if you want to make big changes to your garden. If you’re faced with a flat, rectangular patch, you might be surprised at how radically different it could look with a little imagination. Check out the before and after photos of some of the most dramatic, surprising and creative garden transformations from Houzz, and let them fuel ideas for your own space.
A key point in the brief was to make the garden feel larger. Job very cleverly done, don’t you think?
The designer created a series of circular lawns, bordered by paths constructed from sandstone sets, which end up at a little seating area in the garden’s sunniest patch. The result? Rather than a dull, rectangular patch that the eye can compute in a nanosecond, the garden is now a visually interesting space that takes longer to absorb. The new design also, very pleasantly, slows physical progress through the garden – since you must meander around the walkways, taking in the attractive borders en route. Planting, which adheres to a strict palette of pinks, purples and creams, fills the beds but doesn’t clutter them.
Read more about this garden transformation
The designer created a series of circular lawns, bordered by paths constructed from sandstone sets, which end up at a little seating area in the garden’s sunniest patch. The result? Rather than a dull, rectangular patch that the eye can compute in a nanosecond, the garden is now a visually interesting space that takes longer to absorb. The new design also, very pleasantly, slows physical progress through the garden – since you must meander around the walkways, taking in the attractive borders en route. Planting, which adheres to a strict palette of pinks, purples and creams, fills the beds but doesn’t clutter them.
Read more about this garden transformation
The courtyard creation
Plans for a modernist extension – not yet built in this photo – were the catalyst for a revamp of this generous front garden, which is part of a two-acre plot.
Plans for a modernist extension – not yet built in this photo – were the catalyst for a revamp of this generous front garden, which is part of a two-acre plot.
The framework for the new part of the house, which is in Buckinghamshire, can be seen under construction in this image, on the right. The garden designer brought on board – Stefano Marinaz of Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture – felt the new extension off to the side would naturally create a courtyard effect. “I also wanted to link the extension to the existing house using this garden space.”
The star of this clever design, which, indeed, perfectly links old and new, is debatable. Is it the right angle of the perfectly pleached crab apple trees, physically joining the two parts of the building and visually completing the square? Or is it the wildflower meadow (here and below) that carpets the area and stretches into the rest of the front garden? You decide.
The subterranean secret
The owners of this 29m London plot had a decent amount of space to play with, but their renovated garden packs in so much more than you might imagine…
The owners of this 29m London plot had a decent amount of space to play with, but their renovated garden packs in so much more than you might imagine…
The architects – Ensoul Interior Architecture – gave the garden a contemporary makeover, removing the rotting wooden deck and creating a new patio, dining area and steps using composite decking. But that’s just the part you can see. The architects also used the garden to add a whole new floor to the house: A basement extension which is under the new, artificial grass (you can see the basement’s skylight windows in the lawn). To the right, butting up against the back of the house, is the staircase that leads down to the new space below, designed so that it didn’t eat into the floor space of the interior.
Here you can see the garden as it was from the other end, looking out from the house across the mouldering deck through a conservatory-like construction.
Right at the end is another clever touch – a trampoline for the owner’s son, which was built into the floor of the garden, meaning sight lines remain clear.
Read about the whole project here
Read about the whole project here
The ornamental kitchen garden
The owners of this 26m x 18m garden in the Peak District, which is shown here before its redesign by Sue Hayward of Sue Hayward Garden Design, are keen gardeners themselves. In fact, the whole landscaping job hinged on this fact – as the finished space requires a lot of upkeep and skill.
The owners of this 26m x 18m garden in the Peak District, which is shown here before its redesign by Sue Hayward of Sue Hayward Garden Design, are keen gardeners themselves. In fact, the whole landscaping job hinged on this fact – as the finished space requires a lot of upkeep and skill.
The idea was that the space should provide as much fruit and as many vegetables, herbs, soft fruit trees and cut flowers as any allotment, but that it should look like a beautiful garden.
Hayward designed a parterre formation, divided by York stone pathways, with beds edged by Victorian-style rope-top edging. Beds contain plants including hardy, low-growing herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano. Seen growing over this metal arch are French and runner beans.
The boundary is a dry stone wall, restored as part of the redesign of the garden.
Hayward designed a parterre formation, divided by York stone pathways, with beds edged by Victorian-style rope-top edging. Beds contain plants including hardy, low-growing herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano. Seen growing over this metal arch are French and runner beans.
The boundary is a dry stone wall, restored as part of the redesign of the garden.
As the site is in such an exposed position, the greenhouse, as well as surrounding cold frames, were essential for allowing the owners to grow from seed, as well as for keeping certain plants alive during the winter. “But the greenhouse is also a nice spot to sit with a cup of tea,” says Hayward. Inside, the owners also grow tomato plants, cucumbers, black and white grapevines and a fig tree, which are all planted in raised beds around the inside edge of the glasshouse.
See more of this unusual Derbyshire garden
See more of this unusual Derbyshire garden
The small urban jungle
The recent Houzz Landscaping Report found that neighbours’ gardens were a big influence on design ideas for our own patches. And this garden in southeast London is an example of just that – and, handily for the owners, they live next door to garden designer Antonia Schofield, whose lush, tropical backyard inspired them so much that they asked her to transform their decked, sparsely planted outdoor space.
The recent Houzz Landscaping Report found that neighbours’ gardens were a big influence on design ideas for our own patches. And this garden in southeast London is an example of just that – and, handily for the owners, they live next door to garden designer Antonia Schofield, whose lush, tropical backyard inspired them so much that they asked her to transform their decked, sparsely planted outdoor space.
The 6.5m x 4.5m space had previously been dominated by a raised deck, which Schofield removed to boost privacy, and recycled to turn into the benches on wheels you can see in the next photo. The floor was then paved with sandstone and an L-shape fixed raised bed was built in the top left-hand corner.
Then tropical plants (bamboo and banana especially) were packed in to help create screening and provide a sense of privacy, as well as to give the garden a lush jungly feel. Lots of the plants are in pots, including fig trees, palms and tropical climbers.
Watering is the bulk of the upkeep here, as there’s little pruning required, and an irrigation system makes even this easy.
Watering is the bulk of the upkeep here, as there’s little pruning required, and an irrigation system makes even this easy.
The renovation was planned when the owners extended their kitchen, but as they’d opted to lose some of their outdoor space to get more internal space, part of the brief was to bring the feel of the garden into the house to make up for it.
Here you can see how well that worked; the potted plants can be moved around and with the new bifold doors open, the boundary between inside and outside appears to vanish.
Find out more about this verdant city garden
Read more:
10 Clever Urban Gardens
9 Ways to Style Up Your Garden
Tell us:
Do you have before and after photos of a garden project you’d like to share? Show us in the Comments below!
Here you can see how well that worked; the potted plants can be moved around and with the new bifold doors open, the boundary between inside and outside appears to vanish.
Find out more about this verdant city garden
Read more:
10 Clever Urban Gardens
9 Ways to Style Up Your Garden
Tell us:
Do you have before and after photos of a garden project you’d like to share? Show us in the Comments below!
It took real vision and a creative mind to come up with the design that would transform this nondescript patch of land in Hertfordshire.
Fiona Green of Green Tree Garden Design Ltd completely reimagined the tapering, 19m-long plot, which is 7m wide at the top and 4.5m wide at the bottom – and it’s almost unrecognisable.