Harrogate outdoor living
Outdoor Bar and BBQ Garden Planting and Design in Harrogate
Planting and design that finishes an outdoor bar or barbecue area. Raised beds, grasses for movement, herbs within reach of the cook and screening from the neighbours. Karen designs and plants it. She does not build the bar. Across Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale, 28 years planting Yorkshire gardens. Rated 4.5 from 19 Google reviews.
- 28 yearsGardening since 1998
- NPTCApproved and DBS checked
- BS 3998Tree work standard
- 4.5 from 19Rated on Google
What we do
An outdoor bar with nothing planted round it is just furniture.
Outdoor bar and barbecue area planting and design in Harrogate, and out to Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale. The bar goes in, the lights go up, the first party happens, and then everybody notices the same thing. It is a lovely bit of kit sat in the middle of nothing. Planting is what turns an installation into a place you want to be.
Harrogate gardens make this a specific job rather than a general one. The plots are narrow and close together, so the planting has two jobs at once: it has to look right from a metre away, because in a town garden that is as far back as anyone can stand, and it has to put something green and thick between your Saturday night and the neighbour's washing line. There is a commercial version of exactly the same problem all over this town, on the restaurant and pub terraces, and it is the same planting answer at a different volume. Out in the dale the space is there but the wind is too, so the screening earns its keep for a different reason.
This is a planting and design service. Karen has been making Yorkshire gardens for 28 years, established 1998, and she plans and plants the setting: raised beds either side of the working end, grasses that move in the slightest breeze so the space is never static, herbs close enough for the cook to reach without putting the tongs down, and screening that puts something green between your music and the boundary. The bar itself, the counter, any cover over it and the barbecue come from somebody else. Karen does the living half, and she is happy to plan it around whatever is being built.
Pubs, restaurants and back gardens
The same job at two different scales
Hocus Crocus already does this work for businesses. We have made up and planted a raised bed outside a bar and restaurant, and replanted the outdoor seating area at the Foundry Project bar and restaurant in Harrogate. A hospitality terrace is the same problem as a home bar, only louder: a space people stand in with a drink, planting that has to look right from every angle, cope with being knocked past on a Friday night and still read well on a wet Tuesday morning. Everything learned on those jobs goes straight into a domestic barbecue corner. If you run a restaurant, a bar or a cafe with outdoor seating, that side of it is commercial grounds maintenance and we quote it across the year.
Heat, spills and footfall
Planting that survives being entertained around
An entertaining area is a hostile place to be a plant. There is radiant heat coming off a barbecue, there is the odd drink going over the edge of a bed, there is the shortcut everybody takes to the back door, and there is a great deal of standing about in exactly the wrong spot. Ordinary border planting sulks in those conditions and looks sorry for itself by August. So the beds nearest the action get species built for it: tough evergreens, drought tolerant Mediterranean shrubs, ornamental grasses that spring back after being brushed past, and nothing brittle or spiny at ankle height. The showier and more delicate planting goes one layer back, where it gets admired rather than trodden on.
What customers say
Karen and her team are absolutely amazing! I never imagined my garden could look so fantastic! The price was very competitive, the team were reliable and work was completed on schedule. Highly recommend!
Natalie A.
Google review
Zones, price and who does what
An entertaining area plants in three zones, and most schemes go wrong by ignoring them. The working zone is where the cooking happens and where people queue for a drink, and it takes heat, standing, spills and constant footfall. The social zone is where people settle, and that is where the scent, the movement and the seasonal colour earn their keep, at the height of somebody sitting down rather than somebody stood up. The frame is the screening and the evergreen structure that holds the whole thing together and stops it looking like garden furniture parked on a hard surface. Karen plants those three zones off three different plant lists, and that is the difference between a corner that looks finished and a corner that looks decorated.
Karen designs and plants. She does not build bars and she does not lay hard surfaces. The bar, the counter, the cover over it and the barbecue itself are supplied and built by other trades, and we are glad to work alongside whoever you use. It genuinely helps if we look at the space before the beds are boxed in, because a bed that is 300mm deep and dry will never grow what a properly made one will. If the bar is already there, that is fine too. Most of this work is planting around something that has been in for a season and still does not feel finished.
What it costs comes down to the size of the area, how much of it needs new beds made up, the size of plants you want to start with, how much screening is involved and the state of the soil underneath. Karen comes out, looks at it and puts a fixed price in writing at no charge, with no obligation. Hocus Crocus has been going 28 years, established 1998, is NPTC approved, fully insured, DBS checked and IOSH certified, and holds 4.5 stars from 19 Google reviews.
This work sits alongside full garden design and makeovers when the whole plot is being reworked, and alongside hot tub oasis planting and design where the two share a corner of the garden. The screening is usually a hedge, which is hedge planting and cutting, the pots and troughs are covered under indoor planting, pots and planters, and once it is in, regular garden maintenance visits keep it looking right. Commercial outdoor seating for restaurants, bars and cafes is quoted under grounds maintenance. Most of this work is in Harrogate, and we work east into Knaresborough, north to Ripon and up through the Nidderdale villages, with the full patch on our areas we cover page.
On the tools
What outdoor bar and BBQ planting covers
Raised bed planting
Beds built up around the edges of an entertaining space so the planting reads at eye level when you are stood with a drink, instead of disappearing somewhere below the counter line.
Grasses for movement
Miscanthus, calamagrostis, molinia and stipa give height, movement in the slightest breeze and a soft summer screen, then stand as winter skeletons until they are cut back in spring.
A herb run for the cook
Rosemary, thyme, sage, bay and chives planted within arm's reach of whoever is cooking, sited for the sun and the drainage they want and kept off the routes people walk.
Screening from the neighbours
Evergreen structure and layered planting between an entertaining area and a boundary, so the space feels enclosed and sound has something to break against instead of a bare edge.
Planting that takes heat and footfall
The zone nearest a barbecue and the routes people cut across get drought tolerant, tough stemmed planting that recovers quickly and does not mind being brushed past all evening.
Pots, planters and the finishing layer
Planted pots and troughs to fill corners, soften hard edges and change over with the seasons, made up and maintained on a schedule if you would rather not think about it.
Karen's planting
Outdoor spaces we have planted
Straight with you: these are real Hocus Crocus jobs, including commercial terrace and pub garden planting in and around Harrogate. None of them is a finished domestic bar or barbecue area, because we do not have one photographed yet. This is the standard of planting the work is done to.
Question not answered below? Call Karen on 07816 779 064.
Before you book
Outdoor bar and BBQ planting questions we get asked
Do you build the bar or the barbecue area itself?
What should I plant near a barbecue?
Can you put herbs where I can reach them while I cook?
Can you screen us off from the neighbours?
Do you do this for restaurants, bars and cafes?
How much does it cost?
Where we work
Covering Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and the whole of Nidderdale.
Karen is based near Knaresborough and works right across Harrogate and its villages, out to Knaresborough and Ripon, and up the whole of Nidderdale. Not on the list? Just ask.
- Harrogate
- Knaresborough
- Ripon
- Killinghall
- Hampsthwaite and Birstwith
- Boroughbridge
- Summerbridge and Dacre Banks
- Pateley Bridge
- Wetherby
Want the bar area to look finished?
Free site visit and an honest written quote, with no obligation. Call Karen on 07816 779 064 or send a photo of the space on WhatsApp.