SubAqua
Awarded Silver Merit, designed by Joshua Fenton, Fenton Gardens Ltd
Subaqua is designed with the idea of Sub. Most people can’t afford to give up too much space in their garden to house a large pond despite knowing that it brings a tranquil quality to a garden and many benefits to the local wildlife. Having a sub grill rill running down the side of the path allows for a feeling of connectivity and calm throughout the whole garden with some lovely water sounds on the waterfall coming down the step between the two areas.
The seating area outside the garden room/office is suspended above a pond again allowing for the duality of purpose to take place, it allows for a seating area whilst also giving maximum space to wildlife and planting.
An exciting dynamic to this idea is that some of the planting will grow through the gratings allowing for the uppermost parts of the plants to be viewed in isolation and in a setting we don’t normally get to appreciate aquatic plants.
The species rich lawn is a similar idea in that we can have our cake and let nature have a bite too. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that most families want some lawn and indeed it’s quite nice to come out into a feeling of space. However it’s really great if the lawn is not a manicured monoculture as far as wildlife is concerned and we think that showcasing this as much as possible is really important in changing the publics feelings about lawns.