Introduction

Introduction

In stark contrast to Little Dartmouth, this London site is an example of the transformation of a small, secluded space into a calm garden as a backdrop to urban living and a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle outside.

Our clients wanted a garden that would be an extension to the way they live in the house. The site comprises a north-facing back garden and a south-facing front garden, so we had a really nice opportunity to play with two different environments that have contrasting growing conditions.

At the front, there are railings bordering the pavement, steps up to the front door, and a very social feeling with people passing by. At the back, you're very nestled by other gardens, with walls on all sides.

The context: the back garden

This plot is surrounded by other gardens, and we were able to borrow foliage and evergreens from these to build on the sense of seclusion. The walls make it feel wonderfully solid: they're key to this garden feeling like a very private oasis and sanctuary.

This garden is about creating a beautiful backdrop to look out at from the house, but it's also about having somewhere to come into that's a very different feeling from all the hubbub of London and busy city life.

• It's got soft foliage, multiple greens, seasonal change and a real feeling that you're invited in.
• At the back, underneath a bay tree that we retained from the original garden, there's a seat where you can enjoy the solitude.

There were a number of shrubs here from the old garden, so we just paired the garden right back to the things we thought would contribute to this space, and took out the things that weren't right.

• By keeping the bay tree and borrowing the neighbours' trees and shrubs, we had enough evergreens to provide structure in the garden.

The only other structural key moves we needed to make were to:

1. Plant up the walls,
2. Install two deciduous trees to further increase the privacy at key points and to create a backdrop as you look out from the house – a layered series of greens that tie into the vegetation beyond.

Allowing the site aspect to drive the mood and planting palette

When evaluating a site, it's important to key into the mood of a place. This is often driven by the aspect.

In the back garden, the conditions were predominantly overshadowed by buildings and the surrounding vegetation. This cool, shady feeling drove the plant palette and the mood that was created.

I always think about the natural environments that have those conditions, and consider how I might emulate those in a garden setting. Although almost all the plants in this garden are ornamentals rather than natives, they've been bred from woodland-edge plants from around the world, so they're all plants that are adapted to these conditions.

• As always, don't fight the conditions – go with them.

Our clients really wanted the back garden to feel restful. They wanted it to be a retreat, and a calm backdrop to the way they live and the house, which has a serene feel.

• The greens work really well for this.
• Then we simply built on the layering of textural greens with flowers that were predominantly white, with some pale yellows – cool tones that felt reflective of this environment.
• Whites help to spangle light into the shade.

The front garden is a polar opposite in terms of conditions and mood: it's bathed in sunshine and warmth. Our clients wanted a place to sit and watch the world go by, with a garden between them and the pavement.

An inherited palette of materials

The hard landscaping had already been done before we arrived. The architect had made a very simple move of taking the brick from the house and walls and using that same brick to build a retaining wall that forms a bench around the terrace.

But there were other materials here that we wanted to salvage to give the garden a sense of history:

• We repurposed some of the old paving.
• There were some tiles and odd pieces of paving available that we made into a small terrace at the back of the garden, with a collage of materials that hark back to what might have been here before
• This terrace is a completely new thing but it's a nice way of feeling that there is something here from the past, and that the garden isn't entirely a new statement.
• At the front, where the pavement outside is York stone slabs, we simply used salvaged York stone to make a small terrace and a path up to the front door.

So we kept the materiality very simple – we took materials from the walls, house and surrounding city, and didn't try to do anything that might feel like it's competing with those things.

Two very different planting environments

These two contrasting gardens were an opportunity to tell two very different stories, using ranges of plants that explore opposite ends of the spectrum.

This is how I begin to put a plant palette together:

• I look at what grows well in other people's gardens nearby.
• I listen to the clients and what I believe is right for the place.
• I read – Beth Chatto's books for instance – to determine the right plant for the right place.

By working outwards from a simple idea and making these connections, I was able to build up a palette that works in that location, feels right together, and helps me tell the story of the place.

Establishing a palette

Establishing the mood

The plant palette for the front is all about sunshine and perfume: aromatic plants, and plants that play to that brightness and light. It's a completely different palette though at the back. Establishing the palette at the start of a project is one of my favourite elements. It's when you start to put together a mood for a place, which essentially emerges from a pre-existing sense of place and atmosphere. Once you've established a mood, think about what plants work well in those conditions, so you never have to fight to get them to thrive.

Working outwards from a base of what was already there

The bay tree was the only element we kept from the original garden, because it has a wonderful ability to drop the other properties away into the background.

• So instead of having a borrowed view, like we capitalised on at Little Dartmouth, we had a concealment, because the bay tree stopped us feeling where that boundary was.

Everything else then came out of what was good with the bay tree and what was good in that dappled shade. The bay drove my choice of greens. With the weight of that evergreen, we needed things that were sparkly, light and a counterpoint, so that it wouldn't start to feel heavy or gloomy.

Establishing the key players in the planting

As before, my plant list for the back garden was once again broken down into:

1. Trees to provide structure.
2. Shrubs to provide structure underneath that.
3. A layer of perennials that would sit amongst those to provide interest in every month of the year.
4. A layer of bulbs underneath the perennials to emerge through them either when the perennials are almost dormant at the start of the season (spring bulbs), or when the garden is starting to look tired at the end of the season (e.g. autumn-flowering cyclamen).

Since this was such a small garden, it wasn't necessary to create a detailed, annotated planting plan – my planting lists were sufficient. I would simply take this list to the site and set out the plants according to what I knew to be the best sequence and order of priority.

Our first task once the garden was landscaped was to set out where the key trees and shrubs would go. As they are often the greatest upheaval in the planting and need space around them for holes to be dug, I like to get the trees and shrubs planted either in the morning of the planting day, or if there are several, the day before. Then you can simply flood perennials around them.

Inspiration

I'd always encourage you to think about the natural environments that might inspire your garden.

• The plants in the back garden were inspired by a walk you might take along a woodland edge.
• My clients are Greek and come from an environment dominated by aromatic plants and plants that thrive on dry, windy, open hillsides. The palette in the front garden is driven by that memory of aromatic Mediterranean plants, so we've got myrtle, sages, fennels – things they're familiar with from that country.
• Thinking about the Greek hillsides I have personally visited helped me to generate this palette.

These two contrasting gardens help to tell our clients' story; coming from Greece, which is reflected in the front garden, and now living in England, as reflected in the coolness at the back of the house.

Your Assignment

Our clients had very definite ideas of how they wanted to use their garden, and this helped to inform all aspects of the design. They wanted:

• A calm backdrop to look out onto from their rear windows.
• A sanctuary to retreat into that felt private.
• A quiet place to sit outside and escape from the hustle and bustle.
• To be able to sit in the front garden and watch the world going by on the pavement.
• To have a garden that was a nod to their own story of dual nationality.

Think about the ways in which you would most like to use your garden, and jot down your top 5 here.

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