Alan was in Cumbria redesigning a garden to celebrate the life of the owners' daughter, Alice, who had died from Hodgkin's Lymphoma. 

She was a very special child who had dedicated the final years of her life to raising thousands of pounds for charity. The garden had become neglected due to her parents' commitment to continuing her charitable work.

Beauty of natural materials

Surrounded by such a beautiful landscape, the decision was made to emphasize natural materials and, working with local Lake District stone, the team created an impressive rock garden and terrace.

The garden however was a challenging dog leg shape and the problem of how to bring to life the narrow end was solved by putting in place three Grange flower circles.

Each arch is made up from two timber circles and a walkway was created 2.4m wide with ample headroom. The circles elegantly stretched the garden and your eye was guided to the striking focal point at the far end, in this case a tree donated by Alice's uncle but it could easily be a piece of statuary, bird bath or fountain.

Ideal structure for planting

Flowers can be planted at the base of each arch or secured to connecting rods. Climbers such as clematis or jasmine are ideal to cover the arches with colour and foliage. 

Alan's team decided to weave a rambling rose, 'Seagull', through the arches. This will eventually cover the whole structure with large trusses of pure white flowers. Flexible stems made it easy to train and a wisteria was also introduced to fill gaps and add more colour.

The result was a stunning use of modern design using a traditional material. The pale green finish of the pressure treated timber allowed the natural beauty of the wood to show through and provided an ideal background for planting.

Now transform your garden

You now have the opportunity to transform your own garden into something even more special, with the sculptural effect created by adding a garden structure such as an arch, arbour or ornamental feature.

You can view our full range of garden structures including the new freestanding moon gate arch, which is similar to the flower circle, but has a more natural finish, utilising wooden struts to hold the two circles together, rather than metal rods as seen on the flower circle.