Trish Bartleet has been friends with the owners of this garden, Pip and Aileen Cheshire, for many years and had worked professionally with Pip, an award-winning architect, on gardens for clients in the past. She says however, that the challenge of working with him on his own garden was a unique experience, ably assisted by his counsellor wife, Aileen. “I think I had really been brought into the garden design process to present a fresh look, combine their ideas and actually get a garden built. I think we all lost a little bit of hair during the process!” she says.

The brief was to create a casual (“I think Pip actually said ‘Rumpty’,” Trish recalls) private garden retreat for contemplation and entertaining, with good access down the side of the house and to the front door.

The back garden consisted of a courtyard close to the house and a sloping lawn garden. The front access was a narrow path, lawn and privet and Indian Hawthorn intertwined hedge. Certain elements were to remain. The bamboo back hedge and Pepper tree (removed in 2012) which gave privacy and the shell pavers at the back door reused, if possible. “Let the battle begin!” thought Trish.

Over the years, she says, the garden has evolved, with “pip (pun intended) fruit orchards and random plants just appearing in otherwise perfect empty spaces. Clients who have minds of their own…damn!”

All three of them each had their own agendas, “no surprise there” she declares. “However, I do feel that we achieved a garden that surprised and delighted us all and that still gives pleasure 10 years later. See for yourselves!”