VaRa Garden Design is an award-winning collaboration between garden designers Vanessa Hoch and Rachel Pocock. A friendly and creative studio, VaRa brings wonderfully crafted gardens to life, specialising in residential projects in Hertfordshire and the surrounding counties. With a high level of skill, creativity and attention to detail, the pair thoroughly enjoy working with their clients throughout the process.
In each project Vanessa and Rachel take inspiration from their client’s brief, their interior taste and style, as well as from the surrounding landscape and existing garden features. They deliver individual schemes that enhance the space both indoors and out.
The pair work collaboratively with landscapers, architects and other specialist contractors to source materials and finishes to create stunning features. And with a passion for planting, they ensure that at the heart of every garden, there are seasonal highlights and year-round textural presence, creating beautifully balanced and welcoming spaces.
"We deliver considered, individual designs that balance our client's needs with the characteristics of their site. We create welcoming spaces to be viewed, enjoyed and explored all year round”
Please describe a recently completed project or tell us about the bespoke service that you offer
"We were approached by a lovely couple who had recently retired and wanted to overhaul their garden which was located in a rural village setting in Cambridgeshire. They wanted to retain a pond to encourage more wildlife, increase the entertaining patio and create easier access to different areas of their garden. They already had some established specimen plants, a striking Acer tree being one, but they specifically wanted more colour across the seasons.
So we redesigned the space, taking inspiration from the beautiful and striking architecture of their home to inform the design and choice of materials. Importantly we also added year-round seasonal interest, colour, texture and cohesion to all of the planting.
The finished result is now a cohesive garden, where all the areas of the garden link together providing wonderful views from all the house windows. A larger entertaining patio now provides plenty of room to relax and entertain, and a contemporary formal pond creates a lovely outlook from inside and out. A small orchard area and a shady spot under large trees provide an additional relaxed spot to enjoy the view and watch the seasons by.
Seating areas are enveloped by informal planting and gravel beds, reflecting the colour of the house and the surrounding countryside. Year-round structural planting such as the Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ is married with the purple hues of Hylotelephium, floaty Stipa and yellow flush of Achillea 'Terracotta' bringing colour and movement to the reflective pond whatever the season."
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