ASSOCIATION NEWS
Graduate Gardeners scoop Grand Award
T
he highlight of the National Landscape Awards Ceremony is the announcement of the winner of the much-coveted Grand Award. This year the Grand Award was won by Accredited Contractor Graduate Gardeners; their winning scheme coming from the Domestic Garden Construction over £250K category, sponsored by Europlants UK. The success didn’t end there, as Graduate Gardeners also received a Principal and Special award for Best Design and Build for the impressive Private Garden, Cheltenham.
Cotswold garden design specialists Graduate Gardeners are a multi awardwinning garden design, construction and landscaping company with nearly 50 years’ experience in creating exquisite contemporary and traditional gardens throughout Gloucestershire and the surrounding counties. The Grand award-winning project was a challenging under-taking, the client’s grounds were on a steeply sloping site on Cleeve Hill. The brief for Graduate Gardeners was to maximise the view, provide better parking, enhance the entrance and create a more useable space within the garden. This required the skilful implementation of a design comprising of a significant amount of groundworks to restructure the site. Italianate styling was used to create a 8
LANDSCAPE NEWS WINTER 2021
truly beautiful private landscape for the owners to enjoy. The Judges said, by far the most impressive structural element of this design was the traditional dry stone retaining wall. Over 600 tons of material was excavated with over 300 tons of walling stone used, each piece placed by hand to create a wall 1.5m deep at the base - 500mm below ground level and 600mm at the top, with the finished height an average of 1.8m. It was a testament to the skill of the landscaping team, not least because Cleeve Hill is notorious for movement; there would be no foundation for the wall, other than the stone beneath the ground.
The Judges said that it was only one element of a delightful in-house design that had transformed the space and created the most beautiful setting for the house. They commented that Graduate Gardeners had raised the bar, showing the heights its peers must reach to be in the running for the Grand Award. This large house on the side of Cleeve Hill, with far reaching views across Cheltenham to the Welsh Hills was undergoing a total renovation when Graduate Gardeners were approached. Both upper and lower gardens were steeply sloping and there were a number of significant areas of construction, most notably, constructing the traditional dry stone
retaining wall. Due to the challenging environment, a structural engineer was brought in to ensure a secure wall would remain for years to come. The in-house design included a beautiful contemporary Italianate courtyard and wildflower meadows above the retaining walls. Porcelain was used throughout for all the paved surfaces other than the steps. Finally, a sophisticated planting scheme completed the design.
The Judges concluded that Graduate Gardeners had combined brave and intuitive design with construction perfection. A well-oiled machine, the designer and build team have worked seamlessly together and in partnership with the client, to create a setting for this beautiful home that embraces and optimises the surrounding landscape and views. Charles Price, Managing Director, Graduate Gardeners commented: “It has been 47 years in the making and we have come so close quite a few times. To go the whole way and win the Grand Award is quite amazing. As Graduate Gardeners we have continually put in high-quality submissions, and have seen the Grand Award go to large, legacy, commercial projects. I am incredibly glad that the Grand Award has come home to the domestic market for the second time in a row.” See all the winning schemes at baliawards.co.uk
