Dovelight Wellbeing Garden
Healing and Restorative Garden
"Steven and Diane were open and understanding in the creative process bringing their own very expansive knowledge of root and tree and plant as it were to the project."
Flow
The grounds of this detached Victorian villa, were integral to the role of this holistic, wellbeing centre. The design of the garden held this ethos at its core.
This person-centred, restorative, healing garden was created to invite re-engagement and exploration in the natural world.
The restoration and conversion work on the Villa was beautifully undertaken by Mackenzie Hughes Ltd who also undertook the installation of the exterior slate paving.
The design of the garden required provision for places with different roles: a mixture of semi-private niches and more communal areas. We employed considered use of shape, colour and planting to link these disparate elements and bring a sense of continuity throughout the space.
Iron-rich riven slate, in an array of rich colour variations, blends into the surrounding quartz gravel and provides an interesting and dynamic approach to the Architect designed Cor-Ten tree sculpture at the front door.
The ground plan, based loosely on the spiralling of an unfurling fern frond, embodies a sense of flow and is echoed in the curving drystone wall in the Contemplation Garden, suggesting an atmosphere that is inclusive and embracing. A variety of serpentine pathways in differing materials lead one on a journey around and through the garden. The individual spaces merge into one another, and bold planting drifts and a variety of vistas add to this sense of flow. The paths are reinforced to allow inclusive access to all garden areas.
In the rear garden the focus is The Pod: a unique, spherical, outdoor room clad in stunning copper tiles and designed by David Blaikie Architects. We set this into a beautiful, circular deck in fine-grained western red cedar. The circle became a leitmotif and is mirrored throughout the garden in the water bowl, the Cor-Ten steel moon gate and the willow dome.
The ‘Community Garden’ to the side of the property provides clients with a sunny, communal area for growing and tending fruit and vegetables. Aromatic herbs are grown for infusing into healthy drinks and there are cut flowers in the house year-round.
The front garden provides a naturalistic breathing space in soothing contrast to the busy road outside: a relaxed woodland glade under the canopy of the existing mature trees.