The first thing you notice is the open ground plane. Large lawn areas run out from the house, while the boundary softens into planting so the garden reads as a broad landscape rather than a series of hard edges. In this country garden with symmetrical layout, the straight lines of the drive and the house plan are echoed outside, but the planting keeps the scene from feeling rigid. Gravel, grass and border planting each take their own role, and the transitions between them are measured rather than abrupt.

Lines from the house carried into the garden

The symmetry of the house has been taken into the garden layout, and that decision sets the tone for the whole plot. A generous driveway reinforces the axis and gives the front approach room to breathe, while parked cars stay off to the side instead of dominating the view. The result is practical, but it also does something quieter: it lets the house sit squarely in the composition. Seen from the path, the lines are direct, the materials are restrained, and the space between them feels deliberate.

That same order shows up in the route through the garden. A gravel path garden does not cut through the plot as a single service strip; it bends and branches in relation to the terraces and border beds. The crunch of gravel is part of the experience, but so is the way it marks a change from lawn to planting. The edges are kept clear, with corten steel garden edging framing parts of the borders and giving the planting beds a crisp outline without turning them into rigid boxes.

Large lawn areas, broken up by planting and paths

The lawn is the dominant surface here, and that scale matters. Large lawn areas create distance around the house and give the terraces room to sit back from the facade. They also make the planting read more strongly, because the flower borders and ornamental grasses can move against a plain green field instead of competing with clutter. The borders carry colour in long strips, and the grasses add height and movement along the edges. Biodiversity is mentioned in the project text, but it is the planting plan itself that makes that visible.

From one side of the garden to the other, the boundary is allowed to blur. That is where the country garden feeling comes from most clearly. Instead of a neat perimeter drawing attention to itself, the edge is handled through planting, fence lines and soft shifts in ground cover. The garden still has structure, yet the eye keeps travelling outward. It is easy to understand why the existing view over the fields matters here: the layout opens toward it rather than blocking it off.

Terraces placed for sun and shade

Several terraces are set across the garden, each with a slightly different relationship to light. One position catches the sun, another offers shade, and a third sits in between, so the residents can choose where to sit during the day. This is not a decorative afterthought. The terraces work like pauses in the layout, giving the lawn and borders a measured rhythm. In the imagery, timber decking and paved surfaces sit close to the house, while the garden beyond remains open and green.

The terraces also help the garden feel lived in at multiple distances from the house. Some are close enough to read the texture of the paving, others look outward across grass and border planting. That shift in scale gives the project its calm pace. Rather than concentrating outdoor life in one corner, the design spreads it through the plot, which makes the garden usable in different weather and at different times of day without changing its overall order.

Flower borders and ornamental grasses with a clear edge

The planting beds are where the garden becomes more active. Flower borders and ornamental grasses bring colour, texture and seasonal variation to the straight lines of the plan. Their shapes are looser than the drive and the terraces, but they still sit within a clear framework. Corten steel edging keeps the borders legible, especially where they meet gravel or lawn. That contrast between loose planting and firm edge is one of the strongest visual themes in the project.

Along the boundary, the planting also works as a filter. Trees and taller shrubs create a natural screen, while the lower borders keep the ground level open. In the photos, the effect is strongest where the garden is seen diagonally: a strip of gravel in the foreground, a band of lawn beyond, then the border planting climbing toward the edge. The eye moves through those layers easily. Nothing feels overpacked, and the width of the plot remains readable at every step.

Lighting and movement after dark

Outdoor lighting in the garden is treated as part of the layout rather than a separate layer. It helps mark the routes around the house and gives the edges of the terraces and paths a clearer presence once the light fades. The source text links the lighting to both atmosphere and safety, and that is exactly how it reads in the design: not as decoration, but as an extension of the circulation plan. At night, the garden’s geometry remains visible because the lighting follows it.

That practical approach is echoed by the robot lawn mower, which takes care of the grass without interrupting the clean sweep of the lawn. It belongs to the project as much as the paths do, because a large lawn area asks for a different kind of maintenance than a small courtyard would. Here, the mower supports the scale of the garden. The open surface stays open, the edges stay sharp, and the garden can keep its broad, uncluttered field without demanding constant attention.

A garden that keeps its edges soft

What makes this country garden with symmetrical layout memorable is the way it holds two ideas at once. It has a clear plan, with an axis, terraces and structured paths. At the same time, the boundary planting and the broad grass surfaces keep it from feeling closed in. The garden extends toward the landscape, and the house sits inside that extension rather than apart from it. For a project built around straight lines, it is the soft edges that stay with you: a gravel turn, a corten strip, a border of grasses, and the sweep of lawn in between.

Photographer – Evelyn van Tilborg