Wild Clover Garden Design

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Wild Clover Garden Design

Garden Designer offering bespoke garden design and planting services in the Chew Valley area, Bristol and Bath.

Creating sustainable and timeless gardens with naturalistic planting, designed for people and wildlife. Trained Garden Designer offering bespoke design services for people who want a beautiful and practical garden that reflects their personality and lifestyle. Designs are created through hand drawings, mood boards and 3D computer modelling to help you visualise your new space before it it built. W

ild Clover Garden Design offers full design, part designs, planting plans for reinvigorating your existing garden borders or starting fresh, and help and advice in your garden.

14/05/2026

Before & After: Chew Valley Garden Transformation ☀️🌿

This garden in Stowey, Chew Valley (North Somerset) presented a common challenge: a sunny, exposed position combined with free-draining ground. With intense sunlight for around 8 hours a day and a gentle slope causing moisture to run off quickly, the lawn struggled to stay hydrated.
As a result, it regularly appeared burnt, patchy and tired, rarely performing well in these conditions.

Lawns are one of the most high-maintenance elements of a garden, requiring frequent mowing throughout the growing season. For anyone seeking a low-maintenance outdoor space, frequently cut lawns are not really the way forward.

The solution here was to remove the lawn and replace it with a permeable gravel garden, designed around plants that thrive in hot, sunny conditions. (More on the planting palette in another post.)

To keep the gravel neatly contained and provide a crisp finish, the area was edged with beautiful limestone cobbles, laid in a circular outline to strengthen the structure of the design.

To reduce w**ds across such a large area, Terram matting was installed beneath the gravel and carefully cut into for planting.

Installation was completed by Gavin from , who beautifully followed the plans, and communicated any problems that needed adjustment to the design (as what usually happens!).
When the black palisades originally specified for the stepping stones were unavailable, the design was adapted using leftover cobbles – we didn’t want to waste such beautiful stone!

The end result is a more resilient, low-maintenance garden, designed to cope with heat and drought while still looking beautiful throughout the summer. And a lot less mowing!

07/05/2026

Planting finally finished in the recent garden project in Stowey, Chew Valley!

So excited to see how this garden develops - more photos and posts to come!

25/02/2026

I’m grateful to receive this kind feedback from a recent client 🌿

It’s always a real privilege to be trusted with someone’s garden, and I’m looking forward to seeing this one come to life over the coming months! 🔨🌿

17/02/2026

Here’s the seasonality chart from my recently completed project in Stowey 🌿

It’s a simple visual showing when each plant is flowering — or offering some kind of seasonal interest — throughout the year. Not only is this brilliant for clients to clearly see how their garden evolves month by month, but it’s also an invaluable design tool for me.
Creating a border that delivers colour, texture or structure every single month of the year is no small task. This chart helps highlight any gaps and spot missed opportunities, making sure the garden always has something stepping into the spotlight.

There's so many plants to choose from, and there will be many that fit your garden style, soil type and aspect, giving you something to enjoy all year round, so if you're creating a new border or reworking an existing one? Get in touch if you need some help choosing the right plants 🌿🌱🌳🌾

10/02/2026

Who doesn’t love a moodboard? 😍
Here’s the planting scheme for a recent gravel garden project I’ve been working on.

The client was inspired by Piet Oudolf’s planting at the Hauser & Wirth garden, so I took that influence and adapted it to a much smaller scale. Rather than large blocks or sweeping drifts of single plants, I created layered groupings of plants with a similar look but different roles to play.

By using different plants within each group—but having them mimic each other in form and function—I’m able to introduce more variation in a small garden without it feeling busy. Tall lilac blooms are paired with soft, textural grasses, pops of pink spherical and umbellifer forms, and groundcovers woven around the edges to tie it all together.
Different plants take the lead in spring, creating a completely different feel before the summer show begins. Seedheads are left on throughout winter, while evergreen groundcovers and shrubs quietly take over.

And the best part? Very little maintenance is needed — just a chop back in late February, and the whole show starts again.

Love this style of planting? Send me a message to see how it could work in your garden

04/02/2026

✨From plans to 3D model – introducing the Stowey gravel garden in 3D! ✨

27/01/2026

✨ Revealing the master layout and planting plan for the Stowey Gravel Garden ✨

The landscaping features three overlapping circles formed from rows of textured cobble setts, scattered pebbles around the base of the plants to break up some of the gravel, and a millstone nestled amongst the planting. The existing garden has a country-house feel with a traditional flagstone central path — something the client was keen to keep — so the challenge was blending this classic structure with a softer, more relaxed garden style.

The existing black timber structures are echoed at ground level, with black palisade stepping stones guiding you down to the lower lawn area where the current seating is. A place the client can now enjoy sitting as she looks back onto her newly planted garden!

As this is a gravel garden, planting is everything 🌿The box hedge had to go to make way for more plants!! 🌿
The client loves the planting at Hauser & Wirth in Bruton by Piet Oudolf, so I’ve taken inspiration from that naturalistic style, adapted on a much smaller scale. More on the planting to come…

I know 2D plans can be tricky to visualise, so follow along to see the design come to life in 3D soon! ✨

21/01/2026

Putting together a few ideas for the gravel garden project in Stowey, Chew Valley🌿

The garden has a country house feel and a fairly traditional style, so it’s important that the materials reflect this - textured and rough surfaces, and full of character — nothing too sleek or clinical.

The house is built from the typical red sandstone found here in the Chew Valley, so the stone choices lean towards warm, natural tones: beige, buff, and soft cream.

There are several existing timber structures painted a striking black. The idea is to echo this bold detail at ground level using palisade stepping stones.

As for planting — a gravel garden wouldn’t be complete without Verbena bonariensis! This will be paired with reliable grasses and other sun-loving plants (more on those soon…).

Gravel gardens are quickly becoming a favourite, but they don’t always have to be for hot dry planting. With the right choice of plants, this can easily be replicated in a shaded area too.

More planting details and the final design coming soon…🙂

15/01/2026

My latest project in Stowey (in Chew Valley) 🌿

My client came to me wanting a low-maintenance garden, in the form of a gravel garden!

Once established, the plants in a gravel garden requires very little upkeep: no watering, and hardly any w**ding (if any at all!). The gravel and lining underneath provides a mulch across the ground that keeps in any moisture, and stops w**d seeds taking root.

As you can see in the photos above, the area is currently lawn — one of the most high-maintenance parts of any garden, needing weekly mowing.

This part of the garden gets full sun all day and becomes very dry, making it the perfect environment for the plants I’d use in a gravel garden.

Do we keep the box hedge, or get rid...?

I’ll be sharing how this develops over the next few weeks — stay tuned!

02/12/2025

Now opening my calendar for Spring 2026 bookings!
Whether you need a full garden redesign, or a planting plan for that area you can’t seem to get right, I’m now taking on new clients for Spring projects.

Feel free to send me a message on here to discuss your space, or jump over to my website for more details 😃
www.wildclovergardendesign.co.uk
(Or click link in bio)

Lets see how we can create something beautiful together. 🌿

Address

Valley View
Bristol
BS395SN

Telephone

+447896343105

Website

https://wildclovergardendesign.co.uk/

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