THE VILLAGES AROUND BERKHAMSTED

Our office is in Berkhamsted and our yard is at Cholesbury, so the villages either side of the Ashridge estate are right on our doorstep. They are a different kind of job to a town garden, and worth treating as one.

What village gardens have going for them

Space and access, mostly. Where a Berkhamsted terrace means barrowing every slab through the house, a plot in Potten End or Little Gaddesden usually has room to bring a machine round the back and get materials close to where they are going. That makes bigger projects genuinely cheaper per square metre than the same work in town, which surprises people.

It also means whole-garden work is more realistic here — terracing, a proper drive, a big patio and the planting, done as one job rather than pieced together over years.

The deer

This is the one that catches people out. Fallow and muntjac come off Ashridge and Berkhamsted Common and work their way through the gardens on the edge of every one of these villages. They will strip new planting in a night, and they browse to a very consistent height, so a bed can look untouched from the house and be gone at knee level.

There is no point designing a planting scheme here as though they are not there. The realistic answers are proper deer fencing where it suits the garden, individual guards on new trees while they establish, and choosing planting they leave alone — and any contractor telling you a particular plant is completely deer-proof is overselling it. Hungry deer in February will eat things they ignore in June.

Rabbits are the other one, and they matter most on new lawns and young hedging.

Veteran trees, and why they need respect

The Ashridge side has some genuinely old trees — veteran beech, oak and pollards, many of them centuries old, in gardens as well as on the estate. A great many are protected, and Dacorum Borough Council take them seriously.

These are not ordinary garden trees and they should not be worked like them. A veteran tree wants a light touch — deadwooding, careful reduction if it genuinely needs it, and above all its root area left alone. The most common way one gets killed is not a chainsaw at all; it is a patio, a drive or a new soakaway dug through the roots. Because we do the tree work and the hard landscaping, we set the levels and the dig around what is there. See protected trees.

Drainage without a mains drain

Plenty of properties out here are on a septic tank or treatment plant with a soakaway field. That matters more than people expect for landscaping, because you cannot pave over a drainage field, park on it, or run a new soakaway into the same ground and expect either to work.

We ask about it at the visit. It is a five-minute conversation that occasionally saves a very expensive mistake.

Conservation areas and the National Landscape

Aldbury and Little Gaddesden are conservation areas, and much of this ground sits inside the Chilterns National Landscape. Neither stops you doing anything reasonable with your garden, but both mean tree work needs consent and larger structures get looked at more carefully. There are also a good number of listed cottages, where a wall attached to the house can need listed building consent in its own right.

We will tell you at the visit which of these applies to you, and deal with the council ourselves.

The ground

Chalk with a clay-and-flint cap over most of it, so free-draining and alkaline with plenty of flint in the digging. Thin topsoil in a lot of places, which is why lawns out here struggle in a dry summer unless there is real depth underneath them. Down towards Nettleden and Frithsden the valley bottoms hold more moisture and behave differently again.

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

Where we work

Northchurch, Potten End, Frithsden, Nettleden, Little Gaddesden, Aldbury, Ringshall, Dagnall, Bovingdon and Kings Langley, plus Cholesbury, St Leonards and Wigginton on our side of the hill.

And the towns: Berkhamsted, Tring, Hemel Hempstead and Chesham.

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

Do you come out to the villages, or just the towns?

The villages are some of our best work. Our yard is at Cholesbury and our office is in Berkhamsted, so Potten End, Frithsden, Little Gaddesden, Aldbury and Northchurch are all a few minutes away.

The deer eat everything I plant. Can anything be done?

Yes, though nobody can make a garden completely deer-proof. What works is a combination: proper deer fencing where the garden suits it, guards on new trees and shrubs while they establish, and planting chosen for things deer tend to leave. Be wary of anyone selling you a plant list as guaranteed — hungry deer in late winter eat things they would not touch in summer.

There is a very old tree in my garden. Can you work on it?

Yes, and carefully. Veteran beech and oak want a light touch rather than a hard reduction, and most of them round here are protected, so consent from Dacorum comes first. The bigger risk is usually not the pruning at all — it is digging a patio, drive or soakaway through the root area, which kills more old trees than saws do. We design around it.

I am on a septic tank. Does that change anything?

It can. You cannot pave over a drainage field, drive on it, or put a new soakaway into the same ground and expect either to work properly. Tell us where it is at the visit and we will design around it. It is a short conversation that occasionally avoids a very expensive mistake.

Is a big job cheaper out here than in town?

Often, yes, per square metre. Village plots usually have room to get a machine round the back and materials close to where they are going, whereas a Berkhamsted terrace means barrowing everything through the house. The work is the same; the labour to move things is not.

Are there planning restrictions because of Ashridge?

Being in the Chilterns National Landscape, or in the Aldbury or Little Gaddesden conservation areas, does not stop you doing anything sensible with your garden. It does mean tree work needs council consent and larger structures get more scrutiny. If your cottage is listed, a wall attached to it may need consent in its own right. We check and handle the paperwork.