With any garden overhaul there is a question about how much re-modelling should take place. At one end of the spectrum, new plants can be added around existing garden structures without fundamentally altering the original layout of a garden, at the other end, the whole site can be razed and re-contoured, shaped into something completely different to what has been before.

For our back garden, we have opted for something in between these two extremes: some existing structures remain, but there is a reasonable amount of earth working in the middle of the current lawn to make for better water flows and passive water capture.