Our garden is dry at the top and boggy at the bottom. Why?

That is common where a Bournemouth plot runs off the heath sand and down towards the Stour. The top of the garden sheds everything it gets and the bottom collects it, so the two halves want different treatment: improved soil and drought planting above, and either a bed of things that will take wet feet or a cut-off drain at the foot of the slope.

Where does the water off a new terrace and lawn actually go?

Somewhere it can get away, not against a wall or into next door's garden. On a falling plot that means catching it at the top of the hard area and running it to a pit of clean stone, dug well clear of the house and anything retaining ground. Where the bottom of the garden already sits wet, a planted bed that takes the water beats a pit that stays full.

Bournemouth · Dorset

Landscaping in Bournemouth

Where a Bournemouth garden falls towards a chine or down to the Stour, the levels and the water decide the plan before anything else does.

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A fall that moves soil as well as water

The chines cut down to the sea, the Stour has carved a valley of its own inland, and plenty of gardens between the two drop noticeably from one end to the other. A garden like that is a structural job before it is a decorative one, and the fall does two things at once: it moves the topsoil and it moves the water. Bare ground on a slope washes to the bottom of the garden in heavy rain, so planting goes in to hold the surface, and water coming off the higher ground needs catching before it reaches whatever is holding the bank up.

Grey porcelain paving with a wide step down to a lower terrace, edged with dark setts

Terracing, and holding the higher ground

A long fall is more use broken into two or three level areas than left as one continuous slope, because a slope gets walked across rather than sat on. Wherever the level changes, something has to hold the ground above it: a low retaining wall, blockwork faced to suit the house, or sleepers where the bank is shallower. Anything holding back ground is a structure and gets built as one, which mostly means drainage behind it and somewhere for that water to get out at the foot, since water trapped behind a wall pushes harder than the soil in front of it ever will.

Trees standing on a falling plot

Talbot Woods, Meyrick Park and the older roads near Queen's Park are heavily treed, and on ground that falls the trees are part of what is holding it together. Cutting into a bank to win a level takes ground out from under roots that were bracing it, and stacking soil on the downhill side buries roots that need air, so a change of level near a mature tree is set out around the tree rather than through it. Where a retaining wall has to pass close to one, stepping the wall out around the root plate is a smaller job than losing the tree, and a lighter foundation on that short length is easier to build than a trench full of severed roots.

Covering Bournemouth

We provide landscaping throughout Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and the surrounding parts of Dorset. Call 07926 470907 for a free, no-obligation estimate.

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How it works

Simple, straightforward process

1
Get in touch

Call, message or use the enquiry form. Tell us roughly what you need and we’ll arrange a convenient time to come and look.
2
Free estimate

We visit, measure up and talk through the options and materials — then give you a clear estimate, free and with no obligation.
3
The work

We agree a date, turn up when we say we will and get on with it, keeping you informed and keeping the site tidy as we go.
4
The walk-round

We walk the finished job through with you and leave everything clean. If anything isn’t right, tell us and we’ll put it right.