Aaron's Own Garden: Sunken Patio Transformation in Burton Joyce

This one's a bit different. It's my own garden. I'm Aaron, I run NLS, and this is the back of my house in Burton Joyce, out towards Stoke Bardolph. When the garden is your own you turn into your own worst customer, so I took my time and built the thing I'd want for anyone paying me to do theirs.

It started as bare soil. The fencing was new and that was about it, and with the kids running about the main thing was grass they could actually play on that wouldn't be a mud bath by November. We levelled it, sorted the drainage and split the garden in two. Off the house there's a porcelain patio with a channel drain and a path running down one side. The rest is artificial lawn, big enough for the goals and the playhouse, with a raised bed and a Japanese acer in the far corner.

The bit everyone asks about is the sunken seating area. It drops a step down with a bench built round two sides, cedar slat screens behind for a bit of privacy, festoon lights over the top and a firepit in the middle. A lot of these photos were taken at dusk because that's when we actually use it, and honestly that's when it looks its best.