After they moved back to North Yorkshire following successful careers in Silicon Valley our clients acquired this wonderful Victorian rectory and went about restoring and sensitively extending it.  The existing garden was tired and lacked elegance, although it offered a wonderful collection of old yorkstone flags and kerbstones which we requisitioned for the project.  We took the gentle slope we found in the garden and expressed it as four distinct levels, each 200mm higher than the one below, using the kerbstones reclaimed from the site.  An L-shaped rill connects three square pools and aligns on the new orangery extension and a bespoke hand gate leading to the rising fields beyond.  We integrated a hot tub into the bleached tones of the raised deck and designed a sliding cover to hide it when not in use. The palette of materials is deliberately muted to allow the planting to sing and we used a wonderful array of species that enjoy plenty of light in a free-draining soil, which gave the garden a subtle hint of the sun-baked gardens of the Nappa Valley vineyards.  We were delighted to see this garden and the super photographs of it by Clive Nichols featured in the August 2026 edition of Homes and Gardens magazine.