Terrace & pool
—
Dorset
,
2023
The Salt Court
Four hundred metres from open water, on a slope that had already lost two gardens to the wind. Everything planted here has to survive salt, and everything built here has to survive being adored in August and forgotten in January.
Ground
0.74
In hand
26
Scope
Design & delivery
The site
What we found
Two previous gardens on this slope had failed within five years — lovely in June, stripped bare by the following winter's salt-laden gales. The brief was survival first, and prettiness a distant second.
What we did
The approach
We planted for the wind rather than against it: a windward hedge nobody was allowed to call ornamental, then everything tender kept low and behind it. The terrace itself was built to drain in under two minutes flat.
Everything built here has to survive being adored in August and forgotten in January — so we stopped designing for August.
Jonah Fern, partner — planting
Where it stands now
Four winters through, the hedge is doing its job and the terrace has never once flooded. It still looks better in August than January, which we have decided is honest rather than a failure.