Gardens: Weaving magic - Homes and Gardens - Scotsman.com WHEN Gordon and Susan Balfour purchased their newly-built house in a converted farm steading north of Milnathort, they were struck by the open views the property offered over rolling Fife farmland. The development was also a major attraction. Laid out around the structure of redundant farm buildings and old farm tracks, the development merges effortlessly into the countryside. Less inspiring, Gordon explains, was the sloping garden to the rear of their stone and timber-clad home. Despite the jaw-dropping westerly views, the garden consisted of "no more than a lawn with a stone path running down the middle, with no plants and no trees. It was about as uninspiring as it could get. Other challenges were the poor-quality soil and the gradient of the slope. Gordon explains: "The undersoil seemed to be little more than a place where rubble had been dumped when the house was built." The couple soon built up a wish list of items they wanted to include in the garden: the main focus was a low-maintenance but attractive, interesting design that should include a sunny sitting area. "Although the weather rather put paid to that this year," he adds. The couple were keen to make the space as wildlife friendly as possible. We particularly wanted to encourage birds to come into the garden and to feed in an area that was easily visible from inside the house. This turned out to be a major consideration in the design and the eventual choice of plants. The existing parking space at the foot of the garden needed to be extended to include two cars and to be made more interesting. In a nod to the surrounding countryside - there is a field on the far side of the road - a wild element was introduced and in some areas the grass is allowed to grow high. There is a plan afoot to add poppies and cornflowers. Besides growing a small quantity of vegetables, the couple also wanted a water feature. The planting was to be colourful with plenty of summer interest stretching into the autumn. Incorporating so many distinct elements into a plot of 250m sq might seem daunting to some, but not to June Tainsh, of Greenweaver at the Garden Room, whose stand the couple liked at the Gardening Scotland exhibition at Ingliston. We spoke to June and Kelvin Drury (June's husband and business partner), and were impressed with their ability to design a garden from scratch to meet our needs. From the moment she saw the plot, June understood the unique beauty of the rural setting and determined "the garden should sit well in the landscape and incorporate a look of the surrounding fields. We wanted the site to have the feel of a miniature landscape rather than a formal garden. First came the structure. The slope of the garden was significant in places, but with one eye on the budget a creative alternative to the use of costly and imposing retaining walls was found. June explains: "The solution was to gently divide the spaces using a mix of planted banking and small stone walls to give flat areas of grass in between." Just one curved, retaining dyke was built with striking, eye-catching results. A large boulder found on site was incorporated into the design and used to define the end of the wall. Susan and Gordon chose the second boulder that was later drilled for the water feature. The stone slabs from the original path were re-used, combined with additional concrete setts to create a new textured path down from the house to the new patio. The stone used for the patio was chosen to blend with the existing stone of the house. While Kelvin worked hands on, removing bricks and stones in the soil and generally incorporating the organic matter that would improve the soil, June was working on a planting plan. This was to result in a naturalistic style and year-round colour with a strong emphasis on autumn. At this time the red hues of Acer palmatum dissectum, amelanchier and sorbus are boosted by herbaceous plantings such as tall, white Actaea simplex "Brunette," burnt orange crocosmias "Emberglow" and "Solfatare." Deep pink Veronicastrum virginicum "Roseum" threads though grasses such as Anemenathele lessoniana, Miscanthus sinensis "Morning light," Hakenochloa macra "Aureola" and Carex buchanii. "Colour continues into the winter with Cornus sibirica "Alba" and Cornus "Midwinter fire,"" says June. The planting contains lots of native species with berries and seed heads for the birds - there are lots of warm colours to complement the stone of the house and bring a rich, opulent feeling to what is quite a small site. Trees and shrubs include pink-barked Betula ermanii, Sambucus nigra "Thundercloud" and copper-barked Prunus serrula close to the house. The hedge that screens the garden from the neighbours is planted with three different rowans, Sorbus "Josephs Rock," "Vilmorinii" and "Chinese Lace," rugosa roses, and pink and white hawthorns. In winter, the pink blossom of Prunus subhirtella "Autumnalis" marks the end of the season while heralding new beginnings. June, who relished the challenge of responding to a varied brief on a sloping site, explains: "So often we view sloping sites as more difficult than flat ones, but this was an opportunity to use the existing structure of the garden. Often as a designer it is easy to be drawn in to focusing on creating useable flat spaces rather than working with the contours of a site. The result is a charming garden as attractive to birds and insects as it is to the owners. Greenweaver at the Garden Room, 1 East High Street, Lauder (01578 722 877, www.greenweaver.co.uk)