The British Association of Landscape Industries' prestigious landscaping Awards showcases the finest examples of landscaping excellence in the UK and overseas. Earlier this year we entered three of our pool and garden projects for the Bali awards, for the first time ever. Just imagine how thrilled we were when all three of our projects, entered for the first time, received a BALI award and more on the day!

Awards

Domestic Garden Construction - Soft Landscaping

Lockington Plant Lovers Garden - Principal Award Winner

Letwell Garden for Wildlife and Plant Enthusiasts - Award Winner

Domestic Garden Construction- Between £100K - £250K

Southwell Natural Pool and Water Garden - Award Winner

Special Award - Best First Time Entrant

Southwell Natural Pool and Water Garden - Award Winner

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Lockington Plant Lovers Garden 

Category: Domestic Garden Construction - Soft Landscaping

A year old, we designed this garden for a planning application for a bespoke new build house collaborating with architects Pearce Bottomley.

The garden was created to encourage wildlife, improve biodiversity and compliment the architecture of the house. We specified local materials including York stone paving, handmade bricks for garden walls, green oak for the pergola, local gravel for the drive and gravel garden.

The planting curves around a patio, softening the house, flowing into a small paddock, becoming looser and blending into a perennial meadow with mown pathways around a small orchard.

Full Case Study - View Project

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Letwell Garden for Wildlife and Plant Enthusiasts 

Category: Domestic Garden Construction - Soft Landscaping

We designed and created a wildlife friendly, naturalistic garden with beautiful planting for our clients who are keen gardeners and wanted to attract wildlife and enjoy a long season of colour.

The biggest challenge was screening the prevailing and persistent SW wind while keeping the spectacular view of open countryside.

Planting triple windbreaks and specimen trees to filter the wind, wrapping naturalistic planting around seating areas as well as creating a sunken garden to literally hunker down out of the wind, where the plants are at eye level, have done the trick beautifully.

Full Case Study- View Project

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‍Southwell Natural Pool and Water Garden

Category: Domestic Garden Construction- Between £100K - £250K

‍We designed this garden around a natural swimming pool for our clients to enjoy gardening, swimming and relaxing with family. The challenging, sloping site was terraced using reclaimed Jarrah railway sleepers set vertically into organic retaining walls.

Focal point is the biologically filtered natural swimming pool, with beach and regeneration zone and beautiful aquatic plants. A sun deck is perfect for loungers with a porcelain paved area for outdoor dining. Living areas are immersed in colourful, naturalistic borders, with bold, bright flowers reminiscent of our client’s Kenyan childhood.

The garden and pool have transformed this space and the site’s biodiversity. Our clients enjoy swimming every day, sharing their garden with friends and family, watching the wildlife including bats, wild birds, dragon flies, pollinators, and much more.

Full Case Study - View Project

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The submission process 

Catherine and Ella worked tirelessly filling in the entry forms and collating the substantial information required for each project, including plans, scope of work, contracts and various documents, plant schedules, H and S…which we had left right up to the last week (wont be doing that next time) … nothing like a deadline! 

Choosing photographs to submit and getting the best photographs of our projects taken in time for the deadline was tricky. Newly planted projects need time to knit together and look attractive for a photograph which can be tight with the early summer submission deadline, so this needed planning in carefully. Our talented photographer, Clare Forbes, kindly visited all our projects several times, making sure of the best light to capture the gardens and planting.

The Judging Process

We were very excited to hear from Bali that all our projects had made it through to judging and we were given dates to meet up with the judges at our gardens together with our clients.

It was quite nerve wracking meeting the judges, but they were so friendly, professional, thorough, and really understood the work involved- both underground and the visible finish.

Much of our work is not seen by the untrained eye. Ground preparation for borders and soft landscaping, grading and levels, edging, foundations, hidden pipework, hidden filters, hidden construction in our pool projects - in fact it is the work you don’t see gives the finish you do see.

I think the judges saw every detail and really understood the scope of our work, asking searching questions. Our clients were interviewed, and the judges noticed tiny details about the project- not just the technical finish but the light, movement of plants, mood of the garden and satisfaction of our clients. 

Our BALI Awards 

Shortly afterward judging we were surprised and absolutely thrilled to be awarded three Bali awards for each of our garden projects. In addition to our three awards we were over the moon to receive a Principle Award for our Yorkshire Plant Lovers Garden, and a Special Award for our Southwell Natural Pool and Garden.

The Awards Ceremony

Going to the awards ceremony was a wonderful day out for us all. The whole Ellicar team out together with our clients. It was lovely to spend a day out as a team, dressed up, away from a muddy site.

The event was incredible, a wonderful venue at the Grosvenor Hotel. It was so exciting seeing the tables set out from the gallery above- I just can’t imagine how much work goes into organising this event.

The lunch was delicious, service excellent, speeches funny, and we had a great time together at our tables and enjoyed seeing all the impressive award-winning gardens displayed on the huge screens.

Winning awards on the day meant a lot to us. As a small company it is really encouraging to see our landscaping and natural pool work recognised at this level.

It was lovely to share the day with our clients, who’s visions we brought to life. And best of all was for our team to be able to celebrate together and see just how much their hard work and dedication has paid off. 

Thank you, to our amazing Ellicar team, so proud of what we have achieved together. Thank you to our amazing sub-contractors and specialists, who’s specialist work and help we value immensely.

Thank you BALI, for encouraging us to enter the awards, to Emily for guiding us through the application process and for a fantastic day at the awards