West Lodge Guest House

West Lodge Guest House.
Left - you can see part of the circular walk that encompasses the house, oriented from the centre point of this Victorian property, and the large pond surrounded by fern and moss encrusted natural stone.
Right - these tree ferns - Dicksonia antarctica - set the scene in this part of the garden as the main path winds between them. Our clients have realised this garden from our detailed drawings with occasional help and guidance from RGC.

Left - a view over the pond to the large star patio which will be used for guests' breakfasts and small performances with the audience sitting on the auditorium style steps (not yet finished in this photo).
Right - the begining of groundworks. You can see that this is the same viewpoint as the left photo - look at the roof of the extension on the right of the shot.

Right - the stream during excavation work.
Top left - the water emerges from this huge slab of stone and flows down our serpentine stream to fall into the large pond. There are holistic courses and seminars held at West Lodge as well as our own garden design courses and lectures. Holistic principles were important in this design brief so care was taken to introduce the flow of water around much of the house, crossed by bridges on the circular walk which runs around most of the property.
Below left - the garden is newly planted and much of the open gravel here will disappear under exotic planting. There are several small waterfalls in the stream to bring the sound of moving water into the garden.   

Top left - the raw excavation.
Top right - a solid former was required for this pond as the deep excavation was close to the house and we wanted to create a stone lined natural edge all round. 
Below left - the completed former which was then lined with padding and rubber liner.
Below right - the local wild life appreciated all our efforts to bring in the 12 tonnes of stone in the pond alone. Within one season of completion it is now home to a large population of newts, frogs, toads, Koi carp, and a huge ecosystem of insects and plants, as well as the visiting mammals - hedgehogs, foxes, cats etc that come to drink. Much of the local bird population also use the shallow rocks around the edge of the pond to stand on whilst bathing.