8th May 2025

Hillside Boulder Garden - West Lancashire

What do you do if your garden is on a steep slope?

Well if you're looking for a modern contemporary look, like many of our clients are, then perhaps a cubic arrangement of retaining terraces is the answer.

Or if a more naturalistic aesthetic is what you're after, like the garden we created below for our client in West Lancashire, then a Boulder Garden might be just the thing for you.

Here over one hundred tonnes of locally quarried sandstone boulders were used to retain the slope and provide a dramatic landscape to accentuate with the planting. Boulders are a great way to add dynamic form to a garden with their rugged forms, and depending on the rock type possibly a bold splash of colour or muted subtle tones.

The planting here is predominantly low and bushy to fill out between the rocks, to both maintain a view up the slope and down to house, and so not to grow too large to keep the boulders a prominent feature. For example the dwarf Maple on the right and the appropriately named White Rock Rose (Cistus Salviflorus) on the left. A hardy, sun loving plant which will provide a whole host of white  flowers over summer and due to it being an evergreen, some colour and life over the colder months.

Boulder slabs were also used to create a series of steps, leading you up a meandering path that ends four metres above the lower garden at a terrace, where you can stop, relax, take a seat, enjoy the sunshine and the view down over the garden and beyond.