How can we embed longevity into our landscape designs? One of our projects completed over 15 years ago is a great illustration of what can be achieved with a long-term sustainable approach and a client’s commitment to high quality maintenance.

Implementation was phased over a number of years, allowing the team to gain a deep understanding of the site and create a design that responds effectively to challenges of drainage, soil condition and weather. Features included the creation of a sheltered courtyard, redesign of the walled garden, a lakeside terrace, feature earth mounding and large-scale native woodland screen planting.

The pictures show the garden growing (with careful client management) into it an elegant maturity, and many people have enjoyed its calm through the National Open Gardens Scheme.

Thinking about longevity in landscape design, one ‘wildcard’ has been the emergence of Chalara ash die-back, first recorded in the UK in 2012. European ash featured prominently in the woodland screen planting for this project, to align with the grant funding conditions at the time. It may take some years to know the impact on this woodland, but the UK is expected to ultimately lose a significant amount of its ash populations, severely affecting landscapes, habitats and biodiversity.

Since ash die-back, there’s been oak processionary moth and various other climate, disease and pest threats. Designing-in mitigation and resilience for these kinds of medium to longer-term risks is critical to our planting strategies, and particularly important for trees and woodlands, which are intended to be long-lived features in our landscapes.