LANDSCAPER IN AMERSHAM

Our yard at Cholesbury is a few miles up the road, so Amersham and Chesham Bois are firmly in our regular patch. We do the whole job — clear it, design it, build it — and because Connor is an NPTC-qualified arborist as well as a landscaper, the tree work is ours too rather than subcontracted.

Old Amersham — the valley

The old town sits along the Misbourne in the bottom of the valley, and almost all of it is a conservation area with a great many listed buildings along the High Street, Whielden Street and the lanes off them. Two things follow.

Listed buildings are the trap

If your house is listed, that protection extends to walls and structures attached to it and often to things within its curtilage. A garden wall rebuild, a new outbuilding, sometimes even repointing, can need listed building consent in its own right — separate from planning permission, and unauthorised work to a listed building is a criminal offence rather than a paperwork problem.

This catches people out constantly, because it is not intuitive that a garden wall counts. We will tell you at the visit if yours is a case that needs checking, and we would far rather have that conversation than build something that has to come down.

The Misbourne and wet ground

The Misbourne is a chalk stream and its level moves a great deal — it can run strongly one year and dry back the next. Gardens down in the valley bottom have a high water table in wet winters, so patios need drainage designed in rather than hoped for, and a lawn wants the water dealt with before turf is worth laying.

Access

The cottages and terraces in the old town mostly have no side access, and some are on lanes a lorry cannot get down. Everything comes through the house, by hand. It affects the time and therefore the price, and we work it out at the visit rather than on the first morning.

Amersham on the Hill — Metro-land

Up the hill it is a different town: mostly 1920s and 30s houses built when the Metropolitan line arrived, on generous plots with proper side access and, very often, magnificent mature trees planted a century ago.

Those trees are the defining feature of gardens up here, and they are the thing to think about first:

• A great many are protected. Amersham on the Hill has a conservation area and there are Tree Preservation Orders on ordinary garden trees all over it, as there are in neighbouring Chesham Bois, which is heavily wooded and heavily protected. Consent comes from Buckinghamshire Council and takes six to eight weeks
• They shade everything. A lot of what people want fixing up here — the lawn that will not grow, the damp patio, the garden nobody sits in — is a light problem, and the honest fix is usually a crown reduction or lift rather than a new lawn that will die the same way
• Their roots are where you want to build. Excavating a patio or a drive through a mature root plate can kill the tree, and damaging a protected tree is an offence even if nothing was cut

See protected trees for how the consent side works. We check before quoting and write the application ourselves.

The hill itself

Rectory Hill and Gore Hill climb hard out of the old town, and the gardens on that slope are properly steep. Terracing is the answer — two or three levels held by a retaining wall built with real footings and drainage behind it. It is the most-asked-for job on this side of our patch and the one where cheap quotes leave the most out.

The ground

Chalk with a clay-with-flints cap on the higher ground. Free-draining, alkaline, plenty of flint in the digging, and often thin topsoil — which is why lawns up on the Hill go brown in a dry summer unless there is genuine depth beneath them.

What we do here

• Patios and paving
• Retaining and garden walls
• Driveways
• Fencing
• Turfing and new lawns
• Garden clearance
• Tree removal and surgery
• Hedge trimming
• Garden design

Around the town

Old Amersham and Amersham on the Hill, plus Chesham Bois, Little Chalfont, Hyde Heath, Coleshill, Winchmore Hill and Penn Street.

Also Chesham next door, Great Missenden, and over the hill Berkhamsted.

How we work

• Free site visit. We walk the garden with you, talk it through, sketch a rough plan on the spot and take measurements
• Detailed written quotation within 48 hours. Itemised, so you can see what each part costs and leave out anything you’d rather not do yet
• We build it on agreed dates, with our own team doing the clearing, groundwork and construction
• Everything goes. We’re licensed waste carriers, so the spoil and arisings leave legally and the paperwork exists

We don’t put prices on the website. The same job on a flat plot with a drive to the back, and on a sloping garden you can only reach through the house, are genuinely different jobs — any figure here would be a guess. The visit is free and gets you a real number.

Common questions

QUESTIONS WE GET ASKED

My house in Old Amersham is listed. Does that affect the garden?

It can, and this is the one people get caught by. Listing usually extends to walls and structures attached to the house and often to things within its grounds, so rebuilding a garden wall or putting up an outbuilding can need listed building consent in its own right, separate from planning. Unauthorised work to a listed building is a criminal offence, not just a paperwork problem. We will tell you at the visit if yours needs checking.

Is my tree likely to be protected?

Around Amersham on the Hill and Chesham Bois, very possibly — both are heavily treed and there are preservation orders on a great many ordinary garden trees, plus conservation area protection. Consent comes from Buckinghamshire Council and takes six to eight weeks. Do not cut anything first: the offence and the fine land on you as the owner. We check for free before quoting.

Nothing grows in my garden because of the trees. What can I do?

Usually a light problem rather than a soil problem, and the honest fix is letting light in rather than laying another lawn that dies the same way. A crown lift or a sensible reduction often transforms it. If the tree is protected, councils approve reduction work far more readily than felling, so applying to reduce is also the better bet.

My garden on Rectory Hill is really steep. Is it worth doing?

Yes, and it usually ends up better than a flat one. Terracing splits it into two or three usable levels with a retaining wall and steps. The wall is the part that matters: proper footings and drainage behind it, or it starts leaning within a few winters. That is where cheap quotes cut corners, because none of it shows once it is built.

My garden floods in the valley. Can that be sorted?

Usually. The Misbourne is a chalk stream and the water table down in the valley bottom rises a lot in a wet winter. That is a drainage job first — somewhere for the water to go — and a landscaping job second. Laying a patio or turf over the top without dealing with it just hides the problem for a season.

How local are you?

Our yard is at Cholesbury, a few miles up the road, and our office is in Berkhamsted. Amersham and Chesham Bois are part of our regular patch rather than the outer edge of it.