Garden Design Polperro
Cornish Coastal Garden
This small garden on the south coast of mid Cornwall sits on a steep slope behind a newly renovated 1960s house. Although protected from the prevailing westerlies and set slightly back from the coast, the site is nevertheless exposed to strong, salt-laden winds.
To remain within budget, and due to restricted access past the house, the design works closely with the existing terraces to minimise the cut-and-fill landscaping that would otherwise be required to reshape the terrain. This approach reduces the amount of material transported to and from the site, lowering both costs and the project’s overall carbon footprint.
The crumbling retaining walls are being replaced with oak timber sleepers slotted into steel beams set vertically into the ground. These components can be moved into place manually without lifting equipment and require significantly less concrete than a traditional retaining wall.
Locally sourced granite from Cornish quarries is used to create steps and paving, helping to minimise delivery miles and rooting the design with materials of the local vernacular.
Beautiful Landscapes That Support Wildlife
We create beautiful, naturalistic gardens that enhance biodiversity while remaining practical, resilient and enjoyable for everyday living.
A wildlife-friendly garden needn’t be untidy or unmanaged. With thoughtful design, there is space for both people and local wildlife to thrive within the same landscape.
Encouraging a balanced ecosystem is not only rewarding but also highly beneficial, supporting pollinators and natural predators that help keep garden pests in check.
A diverse planting palette, including a considered mix of native species, can significantly increase birdlife by creating habitats that support the insects and other wildlife they rely on for food.
Garden Design Polperro
Polperro is one of the most photographed villages in Cornwall, and for good reason. Clustered around a tiny natural harbour at the foot of a steep wooded valley, its whitewashed cottages, narrow lanes and ancient fish cellars have a beauty that feels almost improbably intact for a village so close to the modern world. It draws visitors in their thousands, but beyond the harbour front and the gift shops lies a community of permanent residents and second homeowners who have invested seriously in properties that make the most of one of the most distinctive settings in the South West. These are houses wedged into steep valley sides, perched above the harbour on rocky outcrops, or tucked into the folds of the land above the village and almost all of them present garden design challenges that require as much ingenuity as creativity.
Designing in a Steep Harbour Village
Space in Polperro is precious and terrain is rarely straightforward. Gardens here are frequently small, steep and awkwardly shaped hemmed in by ancient boundary walls, accessed by narrow paths, and sitting on ground that can drop sharply in unexpected directions. That combination of constraints calls for precise, inventive design making the most of every square metre, using levels and terracing to create distinct spaces within a compact plot and choosing plants that perform well in the particular combination of shelter, salt air and limited soil depth that characterises so many gardens in the village.
The harbour setting also brings its own microclimate. The valley is well sheltered from the prevailing south-westerlies, and the south-facing slopes above the village catch the sun from early morning. Combined with the moderating influence of the sea, this creates conditions in which a surprisingly rich and ambitious planting palette is possible, far more so than the exposed clifftop gardens just a short distance along the coast in either direction.
Beyond the Village
The coast path east and west of Polperro passes through some of the most beautiful and least visited landscape in Cornwall a succession of rocky coves, ancient field systems running to the cliff edge, and farmland that sits almost unchanged from the way it has looked for centuries. Properties in this wider area, whether farmhouses inland or cottages above the cliff, share something of Polperro’s character a strong sense of place, a connection to the sea and a landscape that rewards garden design rooted in its surroundings rather than imposed upon them.
The Wider Area
We work along this stretch of the South Cornwall coast and inland, including Looe, Polruan, Fowey, Lansallos, Pelynt. If you are considering a garden project in Polperro or the surrounding area, we would love to visit and talk through your ideas.