The project brief was to re-design a tired existing pond that had been leaking, and to incorporate a new water feature. The client wanted something different from the quite traditional look they had before, so we used corten steel to give the new pond a really crisp finish and to create a stepped water feature where the water very gently cascades over the edge of each level into the main body of water. Opposite the water feature we designed a floating deck area that catches the morning sun, and where we wanted to create a feeling of being wrapped up in nature - so the decking is surrounded by herbaceous planting and pond plants. The new pond needed to include fish (we created a holding pond for the existing fish and re-located them temporarily) and is a real destination in the garden as you walk down from the house. One of the challenges with this site is that the pond is set into a bank - so one side is much lower than the other. To manage this transition in the landscape, we created tiered planting beds that wrap around the length of the pond and provide access into the water for wildlife via a pebble beach area. We also re-designed a parterre which had sadly become a victim of box blight - using a combination of Hebe and Pittosporum within a framework of Yew, to update this feature.