Wonderful words from Terra Foras clients around Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
"When we returned to Aberdeen from London after twenty two years, we left behind a really nice garden which we had developed once the kids stopped playing football. While we liked our new house very much, the garden was a major disappointment. It was a small town plot, which we couldn’t change, but it was hemmed in by laurel bushes and was little more than a square of poor quality grass with some shrubs, a large tree, a brown shed and equally brown fencing in need of replacement. We carried out basic improvements by removing most of the laurels and the tree, but we were still left with an unattractive back garden which we rarely used.
We checked out a couple of landscape gardeners who left us uninspired. Then a friend recommended Terra Foras. Adam offered two designs, discussed which plants would best suit a south facing Aberdeen garden and made sure that we were onboard with his design.
While the work was underway, our fence was removed, allowing many people to admire the transformation. All comments were extremely favourable.
We love the finished result and it has been much admired by our friends. A nice garden really is an extra room for your home, and we have spent many hours enjoying ours. We look forward to the Spring when everything starts to come back to life and in high Summer we are reluctant to go away while the garden is in full bloom. Perhaps I have been over enthusiastic with the “Miracle Gro” as the plants absolutely rocketed in size this year. Even Adam was amazed.
A landscaped garden is not the cheapest project you can undertake, but in terms of enjoyment it has succeeded everything else we have done since moving in. Stepping outside in the Summer it always gives us a wow factor.
We can thoroughly recommend Adam and his team."
"We needed to undertake a major overhaul of our garden once our house was built. We did not really have a ‘vision’ and needed someone with the expertise in both design and knowledge of flora and fauna.
We had been let down by another company and a friend mentioned Adam’s name. We could see his enthusiasm from day one and his knowledge came across in terms of what would work in our garden given our location and issues with prevailing winds and animals that would be inclined to eat anything half decent.
He took our thoughts and suggestions onboard and returned with just what we were looking for. We were delighted to give him full control and sit back and watch (and try and learn). Adam is very easy to work with, has a good team, and keeps in touch every step of the way.
The garden has been a 3 phase project, with 2 down, and even when phase one was completed, rather late in the year in 2022 to see the full effect, we have loved this year from early spring watching everything flourish and come into life. It has introduced wildlife, birds in particular into our garden and has made the house feel like a home.
We wait with some anticipation for the next phase, which we know is near and dear to Adam’s heart, a wild pond!!
Would highly recommend."
"When we contacted Terra Foras our city centre back garden was overgrown, uneven, difficult to keep on top of and lacked a decent seating area. It was desperately needing a makeover on a big scale, so we knew we needed to get the professionals in. Terra Foras had been on my radar for a while, having followed them on Instagram to get a sense of their style and ethos.
When Adam first visited he listened to our gripes and asked questions so he could get a sense of how we wanted to use the garden (relaxing, socialising, growing veg) and what our preferred style was (informal, wildlife friendly, low maintenance). He was full of ideas and enthusiasm for improving the space. We agreed to go ahead with the design consultancy service (conducting a survey, providing detailed drawings etc) and the output was excellent. We were given a detailed document proposing the garden design, hardscaping, planting and lighting – everything on our wish list was covered, and more!
Once work was underway we were kept well informed of the plan for each day. Inevitably some things cropped up which hadn’t been included in the original budget (such as our decision to add the side of the house to the scope; the discovery of broken drainage pipes) but additional costs relating to any unplanned work were always provided up front, and we always felt included when decisions needed to be made.
In the space of about 7 weeks our garden was completely transformed. We now have a planting scheme that provides year-round interest, two patio areas to take advantage of sun at different times of the day, a pergola, beautiful crazy paving, atmospheric lighting, raised beds for home grown veg, a compost bin, log store, bin store, and even a 5-star bug hotel. The final result is incredibly close to the original drawings, which is testament to Adam’s creativity, vision and project management.
The quality of materials used is excellent – the sandstone slabs for the paths and patios, the timber for the pergola and raised beds. The plants are healthy and thriving – many of them are locally grown. Maintenance wise the garden is a breeze and an absolute joy to potter away in now.
The whole team worked incredibly hard during the build – they were professional, polite and tidy. Their attention to detail and high standards of craftsmanship are clear to see and appreciated by us every day."
“Our garden was looking uncared for due to the structure of the garden making it difficult. It wasn't suitable to give our children the freedom to play in it with some features making it unsafe. We also didn’t have the time needed, to maintain it properly as it was. As a result, we felt a degree of shame about how it looked, and it wasn't suitable as a family garden either. We hired a garden designer to provide a plan to update the garden to address these problems and, once we had a design we were happy with, asked for recommendations of landscapers to carry out the work. Terra Foras came highly recommended and while surveying the garden and design to be able to quote for the work, we were impressed by their engagement and questions on the design giving us confidence that they understood our needs. They also suggested a few tweaks to improve it! In carrying out the work they were professional and methodical, always mindful to protect as much as possible the areas that were not changing and leaving the site tidy at the end of each day. A few issues arose during the work that led to some additional costs, but these were clearly communicated, discussed and agreed on before the change was implemented. We now have a garden that is a pleasure to be in, that is suitable for our children to play in and we can proudly show off. I would highly recommend Terra Foras to anyone who is looking to upgrade their garden.”
“Driven by a dislike and disillusionment of a large part of an existing garden, we embarked on a quest to radically improve this part of our property. It was an unattractive ‘dead’ space which suffered from excessive hard surfaces and little or no aesthetic appeal. It was Terra Foras’s design led approach and innovative thinking that attracted us to them. We hoped the garden redesign would create a visually exciting and very useable external space. This has, without question, been achieved. Our thoughts, desires and preferences were understood and considered during the design process and we were involved and consulted regularly as the design was developed and refined. Once the design was ‘frozen’, the team identified various practical considerations, long lead-in procurement items requiring pre-ordering and developed a sequence of programmed work elements. A hard landscaping materials palette was agreed using samples and planting proposals and lists created and agreed. We were impressed by the hard landscape team’s depth of knowledge and expertise. This resulted in multiple detailed improvements being incorporated into the scheme. The entire team appeared to have specific roles and responsibilities and this manifested itself in their ability to work effectively, efficiently and professionally at both the pre-build design and on site construction stages. The quality of their work is very evident in the finished article. Our garden project has now been completed for more than a year and we can, in all honesty, say that we have used and enjoyed the garden more in the last year than in the previous ten years. Our garden now feels like an extension of our home and is both inviting and hugely enjoyable whether in it or looking onto it”.