Smart thinking

A private family garden near Godalming in Surrey How does a garden design begin? With a lot of questions and by finding a central theme says James Alexander-Sinclair

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IMAGINE standing in a garden for the first time and trying to work out what it can become. Will it be minimal or traditional? Will the planting be cottagey, Mediterranean or jungly? How is the garden going to be used? By children and dog show many and how boisterous? Should there be a vegetable garden? Are the clients sociable or reclusive? Do they like gardening? This last one seems pretty obvious, but designers often have to make gardens for people who are neither knowledgeable nor keen. Some are scared witless by the idea of a garden and it is the designer's job to stroke the fevered brow, spread calm where there is panic and reassurance where there are misgivings. Lots of questions must be answered before the business of creating a garden can begin-and it is immediately apparent that the design of this garden near Godalming has been well thought through.

The designer Pollyanna Wilkinson stood in this garden for the first time about four years ago. She was surrounded by a few mature trees and a large expanse of very dull lawn. That is not to say that lawn does not have a place in a garden-in the same way that carrots have a place on a menu― but to have nothing except lawn (or, indeed, carrots) can become a trifle dull. There she stood, scratching her head and hunting for the essence, the spirit, the inspiration beneath the surface. What was it that would provide a strong enough theme upon which she could hang the design of the garden? The answer lay, as is so often the case, in the architecture of the house. In this case, the house is quite quirky with pegged tiles and Bargate stone walls. 'In the end,' she explains, 'we based it on the distinctive round chimney, which gave us a good starting point for the formal/not formal feel that I was after.'