Combined garden and wood

Imagine spending time in a garden that feels more like a wood. That is what Kerckebosch Woodland Garden is like. The garden has been designed by Strootman Landschapsarchitecten for a house and grounds. Visitors to this garden move through dark patches and winding paths to bright spots. The guiding principles of the garden and design were provided by the trees that already stood there, which gave the garden a mature look right from the start. Besides exuberant greenery, the garden also contains a few resting places: islands and terraces.

Around 800-1000 new homes were built in the shady Kerckebosch neighbourhood of Zeist in 2017. Strootman Landschapsarchitecten has made the garden design for one of the 45 free plots of land. The central idea of the design is that of a woodland garden: an idyllic garden that gives you the impression you are in a wood – a wood in which visitors move through dark areas and winding paths to places where there is more light. The flowering bushes and plants suggest that no gardener has been involved, but that the garden has sprung up spontaneously.

The trees that were already there formed the starting point of the garden design. Various mature trees stood on the land: pines, spruces, beeches, American oaks, birch trees and holly. We have kept as many of these trees as possible. After all, they gave the garden its character. The grassland has been designed as a carpet of flowering perennials and shrubs that flourish in the shade of the trees. The topography of the plot was not completely level, and with the building of the new homes part of the ground was sunken even more, while other parts of the garden were raised a little with the soil that was removed. The carpet has been planted with grasses, ferns, spring bulbs and various bushes, such as Azalea, Cornus and Rhododendron.

A few islands are scattered in the garden that can be used as resting places. There are two terraces to the rear of the garden adjacent to the house. Around the side of the new house is a lawn, bordered by plants and with the occasional tree rising from the grass. The islands are connected by a cobbled path. There is also a narrow gravel path from which the garden can be discovered and maintained.

Location
Kerkebosch, Zeist
Principal
Particulier
Design Year
2018
Implementation
2019-2020