Case Studies

WM Design Studio created the landscape and roof garden design for this stunning luxury outdoor roof garden entertaining and living space in Wigan, Lancashire.

The outdoor office entertaining and living space was designed by Michael John McGarr to create a better working environment for staff and for entertaining corporate clients.

The 220 metre square space in Atherton had to fulfil many needs, including day to evening garden transformation capabilities. We needed to create private quiet spaces for office staff, for either breaks or meetings, but also needed the ability to transform into a vibrant outdoor entertaining space for the evenings.

The brief also included using wildlife-friendly plants in order to attract insects, birds and pollinators. 

Weight restrictions around rooftop design meant we had to think around planting and hard landscaping needs, without adding too much weight. 

The rooftop area was divided up into small areas, with tables and chairs and relaxing seating areas, using planters to create the idea of privacy. 

The hard landscaping materials included composite grayscale decking and zinc cladding which is illuminated by powder soft white light “halo” lighting which really brings the garden together at night.

We also added a bioclimatic powder-coated pergola with a retractable roof which would allow protection during windy or rainy weather, but could also be totally retracted on a sunny day. 

Our team designed bespoke lightweight fibreglass planters into the garden design, where a portion of the planter was filled with empty plastic bottles to further reduce the weight, as well as reducing waste by using materials that would go to landfill. 

We chose a number of specimen trees including the stunning Tibetan cherry (Prunus tibetica) for its spring flowers and wonderful red-coloured bark. 

We also selected the wonderful Juneberry tree (Amelanchier lamarckii) for its year-round interest including bouquet of small white flowers in spring through to the deep red berries in autumn, as well as being very attractive to pollinators. 

We also added a beautiful Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) for year round structure and greenery. 

A touch of tropical interest was added in the form of Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis).

A selection of grasses were chosen for texture and movement, which includes  feather reed grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora); Autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis) and Blue fescue (Festuca glauca)

Flowering perennials were planted in the planters to give splashes of seasonal colour as well as being good pollinators. These included Perovskia; Sedum matrona; Erigeron karavitense; Verbena bonariensis; Rudbeckia Goldsturm; Actaea; Persicaria; Artemesia “Powis Castle”.

Larger shrubs were added to give greenery and texture include Hebe; Fatsia japonica and ferns (Dryopteris felix mas.)

We also planted bulbs to ensure year-round colour which includes Narcissus thalia for the spring and the beautiful white Allium ‘Mont Blanc’, which flowers across spring and summer. 

Planting list:
Prunus tibetica – Tibetan Cherry.
Perovskia.
Sedum matrona.
Erigeron karavitense.
Verbena bonariensis.
Amelanchier lamarkii.
Rudbeckia Goldsturm.
Hebe.
Actaea.
Allium Mont Blanc
Narcissus thalia.
Phoenix canariensis.
Fatsia Japonica.
Persicaria.
Artemesia “Powys Castle”
Seseleria autumnalis
Festuca glauca.
Dryopteris felix mas.
Calamagrostis acutiflora

Garden Design For A Luxury Property In Ramsbottom, Lancashire, Our clients approached us back in 2017 a the RHS Tatton Flower show where WM Design Studio won Gold, Best in Category, and Best Construction.

The client brief was very simple – to create a luxury garden that tied in with the newly built property.

Stunning materials had been utilized by the architect and builder of the house and this was to be recreated throughout the design and specification of the garden.

The garden was carefully zoned during the design stages to encompass a variety of different living spaces.

Although the garden is designed to be private and secluded care needed to be taken to invite views in from the stunning Lancashire countryside wherever possible.

The design is laid into a simple geometric design layout that carefully draws influence from the lines of the architect-designed house.

The lay of the land in the existing garden gently slopes upwards towards the beautiful hills outside the garden boundary and it became paramount that this change/split in levels could be utilized to great effect in the finished garden.

The Outdoor Spa area houses a large hot tub which is covered for use throughout the year and is sunken into a charcoal composite deck that is both durable and functional.

The covered aluminum structure provides the perfect room outside for enjoying a morning coffee or entertaining and catering for a number of guests.

The Outdoor Room houses a dedicated louver roof which is controllable by remote/mobile device and catches rainwater to be harvested and used in the rest of the garden.

The dedicated outdoor kitchen houses an ALFA Italian wood-fired pizza oven, a Beefeater gas barbecue, and a dedicated beer pump for long days and evenings spent outside in the garden.

The Outdoor Room also boasts underfloor heating and is the perfect viewing platform to view the raised planting borders at close quarters.

The dominant and central water feature is a highly complex piece of engineering that contains 7 pumps in total. Careful recesses run beneath each of the large concrete steps to provide sound across this section of the garden providing a relaxing and soothing backdrop to evenings outside.

Our clients are ecstatic with the end result and further development is underway for a second phase of planting during Autumn 2019.

This year’s Cheshire RHS Tatton Show garden brought home three medals for WM Design Studio the coveted gold medal, Best Construction in Show and Best Future Spaces garden.

Known simply as 2101, the garden imagined what our British residential gardens would look like in the year 2101, when global warming has caused temperature rises of around 7c.

With native species long gone and large specimen cacti and tropical planting thriving, this design resembles the landscape of Southern California or Mexico.

With a ‘Mad Max’ appeal to the garden, it certainly created a talking point at the show and impressed the judges, as well as the BBC Gardeners’ World presenters.

The 2101 garden was sponsored by Cactus Direct, who provided the 60cm wide Echinocactus grusonii and the 150cm tall Polaskia chichipe.

The structural elements of the garden – the conical relaxing area, the spherical shaded area and the battered-edge sandstone table and benches – were all designed by Robert Warnes. Casa Ceramica supplied the large format, single piece porcelain tiles, which formed a stepped path.

A split-level design was included to act as a ‘rain garden’ that manages increased rainwater run off within the garden. This collects water in the permeable higher areas, and distributes it into lower, densely planted areas that soak up excess moisture, alleviating flood risks.

The garden included a range of planting that can cope with extreme heat on the higher level, and plants that can deal with extremes of water and drought on the lower level.

We apply these concepts in our garden deisgns today to manage excess rainwater and periods of drought while alleviating flood risks in the future.

Within the garden, trees that are flourishing in the warmer climate include: Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine); Alnus glutinosa (Common alder) and Betula nigra (River birch).

Tropical trees and large plants that are growing and thriving in 2101 include: Yucca filifera; Yucca rostrata; Yucca glorisoa; Trithrinax campestris; Nannorrhops richinana and Butia odorata. In addition to this, drought-resistant meadow planting provides colour and texture.

With thanks to: Cactus Direct, Casa Ceramics, Rectory Garden Plants, The Tropical Plant Company, Brooks Brothers and Bo Concept.

This show garden encapsulates Michael McGarr’s signature outdoor kitchen design look, which combines stunning textural planting with usable living spaces for eating and dining. With a fire/ ice table and top-of-the-range Alfa wood-burning pizza oven https://www.alfaforni.com/en/domestic-ovens/, this is an outdoor kitchen garden design for family gatherings on a warm summer evening in mind. Remote LED garden lighting was installed for late night cooking and entertaining. https://www.wm-design-ltd.co.uk/2019/01/16/garden-lighting-in-landscape-design/ 

The contemporary planting combines grasses, tall flowering plants and edible planting for a very modern textured look. The corten steel pergola gives a sculptural shape to the garden, and clearly defines an eating and cooking area.

However, nature is never forgotten, even in an outdoor kitchen design, and hedgehog passes were cut into the fencing, and bug hotels dotted around to ensure wildlife can thrive.