Family Garden with Cottage-Style Planting, Bishop's Stortford
This family garden project in Bishop's Stortford transformed a typical new-build garden into a colourful and welcoming outdoor space designed for entertaining, relaxing and everyday family life.
The garden combines generous planting, screening trees, a pergola-covered seating area and a spacious lawn to create a garden that feels both practical and inviting. Designed with year-round interest in mind, the space balances structure and softness while providing privacy from neighbouring properties.
The Brief
Like many new-build gardens, the space provided a blank canvas but lacked privacy, character and a strong connection between the different areas of the garden.
Our clients wanted to move away from the bright white, highly contemporary look often associated with modern outdoor spaces and instead create something softer and more natural. The garden needed to provide space for entertaining, areas for the children and Oscar the dog to enjoy, and comfortable places to sit and relax throughout the year.
Colourful planting, screening for privacy, low-maintenance materials and a cottage garden feel were all key requirements, alongside practical features such as a dining area, pergola, water feature and lighting.
The Design
The design focused on creating a series of connected spaces that felt welcoming, practical and relaxed.
A pergola was positioned to create a focal point and anchor the main seating area, while generous planting beds help soften the hard landscaping and bring colour and texture into the garden. A spacious dining area provides room for entertaining family and friends, while the central lawn offers flexibility for everyday family life.
Privacy was a key consideration throughout the design. Carefully positioned screening trees help create a greater sense of enclosure and soften views to neighbouring properties, making the garden feel more established and secluded.
The planting scheme was designed around a palette of pinks, purples and greens to create a softer cottage garden feel, with interest throughout the seasons.
Materials & Features
High-quality paving supplied by London Stone forms the backbone of the hard landscaping, creating practical and durable spaces for seating and entertaining.
Key features include:
• Pergola-covered seating area
• Outdoor sofa set
• Dedicated dining space
• Water feature
• Feature bench
• Screening trees
• Extensive planting
• Family lawn
• Lighting scheme (currently being installed)
Alongside the garden design, I sourced the pergola and outdoor sofa set to help bring the overall vision together.
Planting
Planting plays a central role in this garden and will continue to become more impactful as it matures.
The borders were designed to soften the paving, fencing and built structures while providing colour, texture and seasonal interest throughout the year.
A mix of ornamental grasses, flowering perennials and shrubs creates movement and softness within the garden, while evergreen structure helps maintain interest during the winter months.
As the planting develops, it will increasingly blur the edges between the hard landscaping and the surrounding garden, creating a more immersive and natural feel.
The result
Although still a relatively young garden, the transformation is already clear.
What was once a fairly typical new-build plot is becoming a colourful, welcoming and highly functional outdoor space designed around the way the family live.
With the planting continuing to establish and the lighting due to be installed shortly, the garden will only become more beautiful and characterful over the coming years.
"One of the things I love most about this garden is how it balances practicality with personality. It provides space for family life, entertaining and everyday use, while the planting softens the structure and brings colour, movement and seasonal interest throughout the year. As the garden matures, it will only become more beautiful."
Zoe Kilbride, Garden Designer
