CROUCH END SLOPING GARDEN

The first challenge we faced was that the garden sloped up towards the rear boundary. The prevailing height of the ground level meant that the lodge would sit too high above the boundary line, therefore breaking planning regulations. The second challenge was the number of mature trees sitting in the higher ground. Thirdly, the garden sloped dramatically from right to left with the right boundary fence being considerably higher than the left. Fourthly, the only access to the garden was through the house. Therefore, large scale removal of material would not be possible.

Solutions

To address the problem of not being able to remove material from the garden without going through the house,we opted for a cut and fill approach. To solve the issue of the garden lodge sitting to high we dug out the bank at the rear of the garden so that the roof of the lodge would sit at the correct height and adhere to planning regulations.

By digging out the footprint of the lodge, instead of the entire bank, we were able to keep the mature trees where they were which avoided damaging the root system.
In order to address the issue of retaining the higher ground the embankment was retained with an oak timber retaining wall with some of the spoil from the dig out used to level out the ground behind the wall for planting purposes.

The client was very specific about needing a space for their children and friends to play regardless of the weather so we decided to lay artificial grass in the play area. Our biggest challenge was in achieving a flat and gently sloping lawn rather than a lawn that sloped at a steep angle, meaning it wasn’t possible to pay any ball games or sit out with a table and chair. We applied the same cut and fill methods, cutting into the bank on the right and depositing on the left. The spoil from the embankment excavations was also used here to help build up the level to achieve flat ground. Here, we used an oak retaining wall to retain the ground along the right-hand boundary to match the rear retaining wall.