Walking Barefoot with Bradstone
Products Used:
Also Used:
Giant monolithic natural stone boulder from Bardon Aggregates'
Bardon Hill quarry.
High quality concrete from London Concrete to create the
seating, coping and render for the walled areas.
The Bradstone 2006 Chelsea garden, designed by Sarah Eberle, is
a truly inspirational garden with a clever combination of
structural planting and tactile hard landscaping.
Sarah was inspired by the quirky approach of two architects,
César Manrique (in Lanzarote) and Antonio Gaudi (in Barcelona),
both of whose work has a close affinity with nature. The garden is
organic in form and the use of environmentally friendly products
was an important consideration.
The garden’s ecological credentials utilising Bradstone’s
Sustainable
Drainage System demonstrates how varying water availability,
stored within the structure of the garden, re-uses collected
rainwater to create a sensory contemporary garden for
relaxation.
The garden’s boundary walls incorporate rain water collection
channels which run into the storage tanks incorporated within the
walls. It is then used to balance the water levels within the
ornamental pool.
To the rear of the garden is a small cave-like garden room,
accessed when the water level in the pool has fallen exposing a
causeway, and allows one to ‘dabble one’s feet’ in the water. The
ornamental pool is constructed of moulded, rippled concrete with an
overlay of gravels and boulders. The causeway features the paving,
with adjacent gravels providing a sensory and visual warning of
deeper water. The materials have been chosen to stimulate the
senses when walking barefoot.
Inspired by the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote, the paving
comprises individual cobbles randomly laid. The paving is
manufactured using up to 85% recycled and reclaimed aggregates,
emphasising Bradstone’s commitment to the environment.
Sarah has selected the plants, using a limited colour pallette,
for their texture and foliage rather than flower and to provide a
contrast to and enhance the hard landscaping. This manifests itself
in greens, blue-greys, the occasional acid yellow, blue and white.
The scheme contains a high proportion of grass or grass-like
foliage to soften and give a blousy effect. Plants have also been
selected for their habitats which are varied within the garden to
give a wide and varied horticultural collection. Trees provide
vertical emphasis and define the space, and add further textural
interest via bark and foliage.
The varying levels surrounding the pool provides habitat for
marginal plants, whilst the deep areas in the pool allow aquatics
to thrive.