Kemp Court
Maintaining a wild garden is a very delicate balance. When we took over in 2009, Kemp Court had tipped too far into the wilderness. We were called in to work our magic and gently tame the landscape.
“Heidi has an excellent ability to communicate her ideas. But, more important than this, she gets the work done.
“We’re able to see the results with every visit, and I don’t have to micromanage her – I can delegate and know it’ll be done to a high quality.”
— Mike Bolton, Trustee at Kemp Court
The brief
Kemp Court is a 1970s block of 40 flats just behind Sussex Square in Brighton, run by trustees Mike and Gill. Kemp Court’s gardens accommodate badgers and foxes, but while the trustees and residents are keen to keep this wild aspect to the gardens, this needed to be kept at a balance.
The trustees had also become increasingly frustrated with their gardener not listening to their needs. The development’s planting had begun to take over, outgrowing their boundaries and borders over the years. Although the residents enjoy a garden on the wild side, this was becoming a little feral, with sycamores left to self seed profusely.
The result
We had the sycamores assessed by our tree surgeon, who put in a planning application to reduce the veteran trees and remove all saplings. A sycamore will self-seed up to 2,000 saplings from one tree. Given that Kemp Court has 15 veteran trees already, this was something that we needed to manage with a firm hand.
We then set about regenerating the hedges and taking the shrubs to a manageable size. Over the years, we have looked at patches of Kemp Court and added more delicate interest in the form of bulbs, perennials, and herbs. We have also planted a full herb garden for the residents, and continued to maintain the trees and hard landscaped areas of the car park.
