LANDSCAPER IN BERKHAMSTED

Our office is in Berkhamsted and our yard is out at Cholesbury, ten minutes up the road, so we’re in and around the town every week. We’ve worked here at both ends of the scale — small courtyard gardens down the narrow streets around the town, where every slab comes through the house, and larger projects out on the outskirts where there is room to get a machine in and work properly.

We do the whole job — clear it, design it, build it. Most landscapers subcontract the tree work out, and most tree firms can’t lay a patio. Connor is an NPTC-qualified arborist who also builds hard landscaping, so a Berkhamsted garden that needs a beech taking down, the ground levelling and a terrace putting in is one team and one price, not three.

What makes a Berkhamsted garden different

The valley sides

The town sits in the Bulbourne valley with the canal and railway along the bottom, and the ground climbs steeply both ways — up Castle Hill and Gravel Path on one side, up towards Shootersway and Kingshill on the other. A very large number of gardens here run uphill or downhill rather than flat.

That means terracing. A sloping garden that has never been touched is usually one unusable lump of lawn; split into two or three levels with a retaining wall and a set of steps it becomes somewhere you can actually put a table. Retaining walls are the bit that gets done badly — a wall holding back a bank needs proper foundations and drainage behind it, or it bows out within a few winters. We build them to hold.

Chalk, flint and thin topsoil

Berkhamsted sits on chalk, with clay-with-flints capping the higher ground towards Ashridge and Berkhamsted Common. In practice that gives you two problems. On the slopes the topsoil is often only a few inches deep before you are into solid chalk, which is why new turf browns off in the first dry spell and why so many lawns here struggle. And digging turns up flint constantly — footings take longer than they would in the clay down in Hemel.

For lawns on chalk we bring in proper topsoil to a real depth rather than laying turf onto a scraped surface. It costs more on day one and it is the difference between a lawn that survives its first August and one that doesn’t. For planting, chalk is free-draining and alkaline, so the beds get plants that will actually live in it.

Getting to the back garden

The Victorian and Edwardian terraces around Charles Street, Cross Oak Road, Ellesmere Road and the streets off the High Street mostly have no side access at all. Everything — every slab, every barrow of muck, every bit of spoil — goes through the house or over the roof of the extension.

We plan that at the site visit rather than discovering it on the morning. Boards and sheeting through the house, a mini digger only where it genuinely fits, and hand-barrowing where it doesn’t. A good deal of our Berkhamsted work is exactly this — small courtyard gardens behind the terraces, where the whole job is done by hand and the skill is in the setting out rather than the machinery. A courtyard done properly, with the levels right and the drainage thought about, is worth as much as a big garden done carelessly.

Out on the edges of the town it is the opposite problem and a much easier one — the larger detached places up Shootersway, Kingshill Way and Bank Mill Lane usually have room to get a machine round the back, so bigger jobs run quicker and cost less per square metre. We do plenty of both.

Protected trees

Berkhamsted has a large conservation area covering the High Street and much of the older town, and there are Tree Preservation Orders on a great many garden trees — particularly the mature beech and oak on the bigger plots along the ridge. If your tree is protected you need Dacorum Borough Council’s permission before anyone touches it, and cutting without it is a criminal offence.

We check before we quote, we write the application, and we deal with the tree officer. There is more detail on our protected trees page, but the short version is that you don’t have to work any of it out yourself.

What we do in Berkhamsted

• Patios and paving — usually as part of terracing a sloping garden, with the retaining wall and steps built at the same time
• Retaining and garden walls — the single most-asked-for job in this town, and the one most worth getting right
• Driveways — including the steep ones off Kingshill and Castle Hill, where drainage and grip matter more than the surface
• Fencing — stepped down slopes properly rather than left with gaps under the panels
• Turfing and new lawns — with real topsoil depth, because chalk won’t hold a lawn on its own
• Garden clearance — overgrown plots, probate properties and gardens that got away during a long tenancy
• Tree removal and surgery — with the council paperwork handled where the tree is protected
• Stump grinding — flint makes this slower here, and it is worth doing before any paving goes down
• Garden design — for the whole-garden jobs, sketched on site at the first visit

Where we work around the town

Berkhamsted itself — the town centre and High Street, Castle Street and Castle Hill, Gravel Path, Kingshill, Shootersway, Chesham Road, Bank Mill Lane, Doctors Commons Road, Cross Oak Road and the streets around the station. Plus Northchurch, Potten End, Little Gaddesden, Nettleden, Frithsden and the villages up towards Ashridge.

We’re also regularly in Tring and Hemel Hempstead, both a few minutes further along the valley, and back over the hill in Chesham.

How it works

• You call or fill the form in. We arrange a time that suits you
• We come and look. We walk the garden, talk through what you want, sketch a rough plan on the spot and take measurements. Free, and no one will chase you afterwards
• You get a detailed written quotation within 48 hours. Itemised, so you can see what each part costs and drop anything you’d rather leave
• We build it on agreed dates, and take every bit of waste away. We’re licensed waste carriers, so it goes legally

We don’t publish prices, because a patio on a flat plot and the same patio on a Berkhamsted slope with no access are genuinely different jobs and any figure on a website would be a guess. The site visit costs you nothing and gets you a real number.

Common questions

BERKHAMSTED — WHAT PEOPLE ASK US

How much work have you done in Berkhamsted?

A lot, and at both ends of the scale. Small courtyard gardens in the narrow streets around the town — the ones where everything has to come through the house — and larger projects out on the outskirts where there is proper access and room to work. Our office is here in Berkhamsted and the yard is at Cholesbury, so we are in and around the town every week.

My garden slopes badly. Can anything be done with it?

Almost always, yes, and it usually ends up better than a flat one. The answer is terracing — splitting it into two or three levels with a retaining wall and steps, so you get a usable seating area instead of a bank of grass you cannot stand on. The wall is the part that has to be built properly, with real foundations and drainage behind it, or it starts leaning within a few years.

Why does my lawn always go brown in summer?

Usually because there is only a few inches of soil over solid chalk, which is very common on the higher ground around Berkhamsted. The turf has nothing to root into and no reservoir of moisture. Relaying it onto proper imported topsoil at a real depth fixes it. Laying new turf straight onto a scraped chalk surface is why it happens in the first place.

There is no way round the side of my house. Is that a problem?

It is normal here — most of the terraces near the town centre are the same. It affects how long the job takes rather than whether we can do it. We board and sheet a route through the house, use a machine only where one genuinely fits, and barrow the rest. We work it out at the site visit so the quote reflects the real job.

My tree might have a preservation order on it. What do I do?

Nothing yet — just ask us. Much of Berkhamsted is a conservation area and there are orders on a lot of garden trees. We check with Dacorum Borough Council before quoting, and if permission is needed we write and submit the application and deal with the tree officer ourselves. Cutting a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence and the liability sits with you as the owner, so it is worth the phone call.

How soon could you start?

It depends on the time of year and the size of the job, and we will give you an honest answer at the visit rather than a flattering one. If a protected tree is involved, the council paperwork adds six to eight weeks, which is worth knowing early.

Do you charge for coming out?

No. The visit is free, you get a detailed written quote within 48 hours, and if you decide against it that is the end of it.