“A garden designed to wow at the weekend without the work during the week.” That's how Neil Sutcliffe of Creative Roots describes Sociability, the garden that's just won Gold and Best Garden in the Lifestyle category at Gardeners' World Live. We show you round.

Neil Sutcliffe wearing T-shirt stands behind outdoor counter with grill in show garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2015
Neil Sutcliffe of Creative Roots, in Sociability, his Best Lifestyle award-winning garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2015

GW Live 2015 Lifestyle Garden category

The Lifestyle Gardens were brand-new this year, aiming to give visitors at every stage of life ideas that they could take home. Each garden was 7 x 10 metres and Neil's covered the Entertainment stage, when children are growing up and the garden can be given over less to play and more to socialising with friends, while offering more than just a barbecue.

White table with 2 square stools on teak-coloured decking in Sociability, Best Lifestyle Garden, BBC GW Live 2015
The dining area in Sociability, a garden for a family with children that have grown up a bit.

Sociability, Best Lifestyle Garden

Show Manager Jenny Jenner said that Sociability demonstrated excellent quality of finish and maturity of design, while Sarah Sandys-Renton of Gardener's World Live saw it as particularly relevant to modern living, integrating the garden into life at home.

3 narrow pipes in white wall send water into 3 tall planters with irises and ferns in foreground.
Creative Roots' attention to detail included the use of Jura Blue limestone at either end of the the garden, with decking underfoot in the seating section.

Underfoot, Neil chose a lovely limestone paving from Germany which has small fossils and shells clearly embedded within it, giving it real interest and character. “I chose Jura Grey Limestone because we had teak-colour decking,” says Neil, “and it was a contrast, and you've got the mottling and texture within the Jura.”

Slab of Jura Blue limestone showing embedded fossil in sawn surface.
Jura limestone can add fascinating detail, like this fossil clearly visible in the sawn surface.

It's also low-maintenance, unlike some limestones. London Stone obtained the blue-coloured Jura especially for Neil, but our Jura Beige Limestone is a super, warm-coloured version of the same paving.

Neil's planting choices followed on from the paving, echoing the blue tones and mainly using plants with purples, blues and pinks, such as the irises pictured and Salvia 'Twilight Serenade'. To ensure that lack of weekly maintenance, he also chose ferns, hellebores and box balls. He complemented the colouring with home stainless steel planters that receive the fountains.

A bit about garden designer Neil Sutcliffe

Man semi-lying in corner of patio laying Jura Blue limestone. Spacers between slabs.
One of the team from Creative Roots. Spacers between the Jura sawn limestone slabs help create fine, even jointing.

Neil is a graduate of Nottingham Trent University where he took an HND in Graphic Design in 2001. He went on to work for chartered surveyor and property consultant FHP, where his time coincided with the increasing fashion for loft-style living. Since 2010, he has been running garden design and landscaping company Creative Roots with his father Keith and seen the “garden room" rise in popularity. He describes his winning design as a combination of the two trends.

 Creative Roots are no strangers to Gardeners' World Live as, in 2013, Neil won Silver-Gilt for show garden Nature Lays Claim, entered in Metamorphosis, the show-garden category which challenges designers to be as innovative as possible while using a prescribed list of materials.

Increasing demand for outdoor kitchens

View over railing into Best Lifestyle Garden at BBC GW Live 2015, with outdoor kitchen and decking.
Outdoor kitchens are an increasingly desirable addition to gardens.

Based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, Neil has found that requests for outdoor kitchen/dining designs on the rise. “We've done quite a few firepits and barbecues built in. The weather isn't putting people off, though a lot of people know they'll use it for only a few months a year. But we went to a client's birthday party last December and he was using the pizza oven, with everyone standing outside. It doesn't have to be hot and sunny.”

No, indeed!

For more award-winning gardens by Neil Sutcliffe and Creative Roots, see his RHS Chatsworth 2017 Silver-Gilt winner Time for Everything Garden and his Gold-winning Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden at Tatton Park Flower Show 2021.