LANDSCAPER IN GREAT MISSENDEN

Great Missenden sits in the Misbourne valley with the ground climbing steeply either side into beech woodland. It is all inside the Chilterns National Landscape, and it is a few miles from our yard at Cholesbury.

We do the whole job — clear it, design it, build it. Connor is an NPTC-qualified arborist as well as a landscaper, which matters more here than in most places, because in Missenden the trees usually decide what the garden can be.

The slopes

Frith Hill, Martinsend Lane, Chiltern Road, the lanes up towards Ballinger and The Lee — the ground here does not mess about. A great many gardens run steeply up or down away from the house, and left alone that means a bank of rough grass nobody can use.

Terracing is the answer: two or three levels held by a retaining wall with steps between them. On a slope this steep the wall is doing serious structural work — proper concrete footings, free-draining stone and a land drain behind it, weep holes through the face. None of that is visible when it is finished, which is exactly why it is the first thing left out of a cheap quote. A retaining wall that starts leaning after three winters was built without it.

The same slope makes driveways here a job in their own right. A steep drive needs the water intercepted before it runs down and sits against the garage, and a surface chosen for grip rather than looks.

The beech

The valley sides are hung with beech, and it comes right down into the gardens. Beech casts the densest shade of any of our native trees and takes an enormous amount of water out of the ground, which is why so many gardens here have a strip along one boundary where nothing has ever grown.

Grass will not fix that, and neither will more grass. The realistic options are letting light in with a crown lift or reduction, planting things that will actually live in dry shade, or giving up on the idea of lawn there and paving or gravelling it instead. We will tell you which we think it is rather than selling you turf that will be dead by August.

Beech is also shallow-rooted and does not like its root area disturbed, so a patio or drive going in near one has to be set out around it.

Protected trees, and the National Landscape

Great Missenden has a conservation area over the High Street and much of the old village, and there are Tree Preservation Orders on a great many garden trees across the parish and out through Prestwood, South Heath and The Lee. Consent comes from Buckinghamshire Council: six weeks in a conservation area, about eight for a tree with an order on it.

Being in the Chilterns National Landscape does not stop you improving your garden, but it does mean larger structures get looked at more carefully. Neither is a reason to put a job off — it is a reason to start the paperwork early. We check before quoting and write the applications ourselves. See protected trees.

The ground, and the stream

Chalk on the valley sides with a clay-with-flints cap on the tops around Prestwood and Great Kingshill — so free-draining and flinty low down, heavier and wetter up top. Two different problems within a mile, and worth knowing which you have before anyone lays turf.

The Misbourne itself is a winterbourne: it runs in wet years and can dry back to nothing in a run of dry ones. Gardens near it can be waterlogged one winter and bone dry the next, which is worth designing for rather than reacting to.

Access

Mixed. The cottages in the village centre are tight, often on narrow lanes, with everything going through the house by hand. Out at Prestwood, South Heath, Ballinger and The Lee the plots are larger with room for a machine, so bigger jobs run quicker and cost less per square metre.

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 village

Great Missenden and Little Missenden, plus Prestwood, Great Kingshill, Little Kingshill, South Heath, Ballinger, The Lee, Lee Common, Hyde Heath and Hyde End.

Also Amersham, Chesham and, over the hill, Berkhamsted and Tring.

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

Nothing grows along one side of my garden. Why?

Almost certainly beech. It casts the heaviest shade of any of our native trees and draws a huge amount of water out of the soil, so the ground beneath it is dark and dry — the two things grass copes with worst. More turf will not fix it. Letting light in with a crown lift, planting for dry shade, or paving that strip are the three honest options.

My garden is a steep bank. Can it be made usable?

Yes, and terracing usually turns the worst part of a Missenden garden into the best. Two or three levels with a retaining wall and steps. On slopes this steep the wall is proper structural work — concrete footings, drainage behind, weep holes. It is the expensive invisible half of the job and it is what stops the wall leaning in five years.

Do I need permission for tree work here?

Very often. The village centre is a conservation area and there are preservation orders on a great many garden trees across the parish, Prestwood and The Lee included. Consent comes from Buckinghamshire Council — six weeks in a conservation area, about eight for a tree with an order. We check for free before quoting and submit the application ourselves.

Does being in the Chilterns National Landscape stop me doing things?

Not for ordinary garden work. It means larger structures get more scrutiny, and tree protection is taken seriously. It is a reason to start the paperwork early rather than a reason to abandon the idea. We will tell you at the visit what, if anything, applies to your job.

My garden was waterlogged last winter but bone dry this year. What is going on?

That will be the Misbourne. It is a winterbourne — a chalk stream that runs strongly in wet years and can dry back to nothing in dry ones — so the water table near it swings a long way. It is better to design for both extremes than to react to whichever one you had last.

How far out do you come?

Our yard is at Cholesbury, a few miles away, so Missenden, Prestwood, The Lee and Ballinger are all comfortably within our patch.