Case Study - Pond

• An old pond to new, in the South Downs National Park, with a twist. The client asked us to make it “swimmable” for a few years, with a mind to turn it back into a pond again. This question was asked half way through!

• This was not designed before hand as we had to discover the old pond first. Then our knowledge was tested as we had to accommodate the Brief changing, we installed filter beds with an exceptional filter system.

Pond in disrepair before starting
Installation of concrete ring and shaping of pond before lining
First fit of liner to pond, water in to stretch it out
Liner is full, ready to be emptied as now it fits like a glove
Staring the build of the veg filters upon second layer of liner
Cleaning down the work
Filters in and pump installed and performing test run
Waiting for the final fill before the plants go in
Plants in, filled and running, and ground around now graded and seeded with York stone edge installed
the pond develops over the coming days
The pond as it starts to come alive
Aerial shot from a drone about 4 months after finishing
The fish in the pond!
The Following winter, the pond is well settled

Case Study - Town garden

• this one started with us taking exact measurements including heights and I translate this to paper and to scale as I have done for 30 years. If required we can put this on computer but with 30 years experience behind me and my presence on site throughout our projects, this is often all thats is required. High End Virtual Visuals can be done by Ai Today, so I actually feel this method has become more genuine and valid than ever before….

• Small town garden in Winchester. The brief was for a modern all year round garden with no lawn. We used contemporary materials and ideas as well as lighting and a louvred gazebo to meet the ‘All Year’ criteria.

• The Porcelain is picture framed, creating a stunning visual effect, mixed with the Steel Sculpture and planting. This is actually quite low maintenance, no membrane but bark chip and a little hedge cutting.

Plan View of Small contemporary Town Garden in Winchester
Old Slabs up and clearance including 10 x 8 shed gone
Work starts
Sub base preparation for new slabs and new fence installed
Pavestone Italian Porcelain Slabs Arrive
The Laying starts of the finest porcelain / ceramic paving
Laying out before install of paving, checking measurements and positions
Picture framed ceramic paving done by house
Matching step stones installed
Plants arrive and start to get laid out
Steel Sculpture mounted upon Oak
Shot from Above - nearly done, storage in
Finished - Daytime - with pergola installed and plants maturing
Night time and lights are on in the garden under the Pergolux Pergola

Case Study - Family Garden

• The brief was to create a sympathetic garden to a growing family that encouraged the view and yet still held interest including a home office, water feature, planting, vegetable area, decking and a larger paved area. As ever we start with discussions, meetings, and then sketches and measurements leading to a plan. I could not understand why some of the other designs they had had done ignored the view, this was why they had bought the house.

• Here you can see the progression of ideas as I go through the design process and material choice with my clients, which leads to a rough planting plan as well. Seasonal availability can affect our final plant choices as can budget. Here we used Pavestone Tumbled limestone and Millboard decking. The Water feature is activated by using your phone and was made to my design with a clever dished top and special “Drip” noise system.

Garden Design evolution stage 1
Design design evolution stage 2
Planting plan sketch
Day one on the other side of the garden
Day one on site marking out
Marking out, with a view of the South Downs
Starting the dig out
Framework for composite decking boards
Building the composite decking
Prepared veg area
Planting by the veg area
Finished Millboard decking with oval shape
the original patio is a little small
Narrow and useless original path
Before - old paving - dirty
Base preparation and installation of retaining walling and steps
started the landscaping on the lovely tumbled limestone
Still working on the limestone paving by the back door
Almost finished the Limestone
Installing the water feature
Finished bespoke water feature
Wisteria for screening right hand side of garden
Start of planting on left side
Steps to lawn with view over south downs and planting by MNB Designs
Steel planters designed to fit on steps
home office at night in countryside back garden with Millboard decking
Finished Patio and walling against large family home
Finished Garden Lawn and borders by C Dupont and MNB Designs
Aerial view, taken by drone of Back garden after MNB designs have landscaped

Case Study - Large Area

On this project we had a survey, these are helpful on the projects where we cover a lot of ground. That said there was so much organic movement on this what started as 130m2 of paving ended up over twice that! Best laid plans and all that….anyway here you can see how the plan changed versus the final product. In fact we are still waiting to go back and see how, the metal work went in and the planting is coming along so we have included a video or two as this one was big and hard to take a photo of - never got a non-windy day for the drone. This was a fascinating exercise in expectations, as the plan kept changing, almost every day at points, it certainly kept us on our toes and despite Ai and CAD theres no beating experience.

Initial Survey of Land before Landscaping by MNB Designs

Survey stage

To scale garden design / Winchester
To scale amended garden design Winchester

Amended Design as project developed

Initial plan and Design

A walk around video of large paving and landscaping Project in Droxford performed by MNB Designs and Landscaper and Designer C Dupont

Another walk around video of Landscaping Project in Droxford Designed by C Dupont and built by MNB Designs