Studio Loci is working with Hands of Hope to reimagine the historic walled garden at Hope Farm as a productive landscape centred around water, growing and wellbeing.
The design works with the site’s existing topography, using changes in level to create a series of interconnected garden spaces and to influence how water naturally moves through the landscape.
Inspired by the traditional Edwardian kitchen garden, the proposals combine productive growing beds, orchard and meadow planting, an Edwardian inspired wild garden and spaces for learning, gathering and relaxation.
Water forms the thread running through the garden. Rainwater is captured from roofs and hard surfaces and directed through stone rills and channels, before being stored within underground reservoirs for reuse. Traditional hand pumps allow visitors to draw stored water back into the garden for irrigation, making the movement and value of water visible and interactive.
Below ground, storage crates and gravel reservoirs act almost like small artificial aquifers, holding water within the landscape and reducing reliance on conventional irrigation.
The result is a contemporary and sustainable take on the traditional water garden, bringing together heritage, productive growing, biodiversity and water management in a landscape designed to support the work of Hands of Hope.
This is very much a work in progress, with the ideas continuing to evolve as we develop the relationship between water, landscape and productive growing.
Watch this space!
