Estate agents know the value of a well designed and made garden.

My client was a very well established estate agent in busy Stoke Newington Church Street. Her existing garden was typical of a newly built house - a concrete slab patio, with a lawn, laid to the fences, and a rather ugly red engineering brick retained bed running at the rear.

The new design was simple. The existing retaining wall was rendered, and two new raised beds constructed, at a lower height. The main garden area was paved using natural sandstone, with two ground level beds, and Balau hardwood was used to construct a small deck step from the rear door, and an unsupported bench, running around the raised bed walls.

In size, little more than a 'room outside' yet the garden was now a place that you would enjoy being in - and of course it adds value to the property.