WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?

Pre-registered SGD member Cameron Trend speaks to Zia Allaway about how he has used terracing and steps instead of dominant retaining walls to moderate a steeply sloping four-acre garden in north Kent

AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL, pre-registered Society of Garden Designers member Cameron Trend worked at a vineyard in Kent before studying horticulture part time at Hadlow College. While still at college, he started a garden maintenance and landscaping business, which he ran for five years before deciding to study for a career in garden design. In 2020, Cameron graduated with distinction from the Inchbald School of Design and subsequently set up his own practice.

How did you win this commission?

My clients had recently bought an Arts and Crafts-style house set in four acres of garden and woodland, and they were looking for a fresh approach for the landscape design. In an internet search for young garden designers in the region, my name popped up and they got in touch. I believe they asked a couple of other designers for ideas and quotes and, obviously, liked mine.

Did the owners give you a brief?

The couple asked for a garden that would marry the traditional elements of the house architecture with the modern interiors they had created. As a young family, they wanted space for the children to play, a generous dining terrace and a hot tub. They also discussed with me the idea of installing an infinity swimming pool that would reflect the surrounding woodland and lie in front of an existing pool house and drinks bar that stand on one side of the main house.

What challenges did you face?

The garden is on a 25 per cent undulating slope, with the house at the top and mature woodland at the bottom, so my main challenge was how to deal with the changes of level. The owners asked me to keep the view of the woods as seen from the bifold doors at the back of the house, but wanted this to be done without the addition of any retaining walls as they would look too imposing when seen from the foot of the hill. The infinity pool was also very ambitious and, as this was one of my first commissions, the design and installation has been a steep learning curve. Fortunately, my father is a landscaper and his years of experience have been a huge help.

Tell us more about your design I made the flattest area outside the front of the house into a sports lawn, so the children can kick a ball around. I also designed four terraces to flow out from the back of the house: an evening terrace lies immediately outside the bifold doors, with a large dining terrace below it, linked by a wide flight of steps. Adjacent to these, in front of the pool house, I created a sun terrace that overlooks the new infinity pool and below that, the hot tub and a small lounge area sit on a fourth terrace. All the terraces look out over generous meadow planting on either side of a mown lawn that takes you down to a treehouse. Beyond that, an area of ornamental trees and shrubs blends the garden into the mature woodland. Feature steps in the sloping lawn, which narrow in width as you approach the woods, slow the transition between built spaces and open lawn, while mown paths cut through the meadows to provide a more horizontal journey around the garden. The terraces are linked by porcelain-lined steps with dark-coloured risers that make the steps almost invisible when seen from the garden below while creating horizontal lines that reflect the Arts and Craftsinspired timber details on the gables of the house. Banks of mixed planting are used instead of hard retaining walls to soften the design and to further blur the change from one level to the next.

Has the build encountered any issues?

Water runs off the clay-rich soil and flows down the slope, but the planting I am introducing – which includes tough plants such as Phlomis russeliana, nepeta and geraniums, as well as the meadows – will soak up some of the moisture. The trees, shrubs, and expanse of mature woodland at the bottom of the hill will help by absorbing the excess. camerontrenddesign.co.uk

What about ongoing maintenance?

The owners have a gardener and I have tried to make the design relatively easy to look after. The feature steps in the sloping lawn, for example, each have a gap at one end so that a mower can pass through, and once the perennial meadow is established, it will only need to be cut once a year.