The brief
hen designer Andy Sturgeon was approached by the owners of this country house, he met with a typical scenario: having renovated their house, the clients had turned their thoughts to the garden. Much of the two-and-a-half-acre plot slopes steeply away from the house and in order to create a useable, flat area at the back, the clients had asked a local builder to lay an enormous terrace. They had quickly realised that this wasn't working, however – not least because there was a 1.1m drop on to the lawn in some places. “I knew I'd have to convince the clients to rip up a good chunk of what they had just installed,” says Andy. Fortunately, the clients agreed, and their other requirements were straightforward: an area for outdoor cooking and spaces for children's play, plus lots of seasonal
