Creating an outdoor room in north London

 

When we first saw this small and rather hemmed-in courtyard in north London, it was immediately apparent that the space would be best served by using just a few well-chosen materials.  The client was overseeing major interior decoration as well and wanted style of the new garden to flow effortlessly from the house.

The client wanted a garden to sit and relax in but also for socialising. Plenty of seating space despite the size was a priority. A small recessed area to the right of the courtyard will be used to house a barbecue and outdoor kitchen units. The client also wanted to be able to grow herbs for the kitchen, and we installed the green wall, using vertical garden pods from Green4Air, and with a solar-powered irrigation system supplied by Irrigatia.

The patterned tiles were chosen from the Sorrento range supplied by Fired Earth. The intricate detailing might have been overwhelming in a larger patio but in this compact space they brought light and texture.

The cedar bench was designed by The Urban Hedgerow built from scratch onsite by Graham Thompson of Creative Landscapes London, creating enough room to seat 8-10 people comfortably - or for fewer people to stretch out on cushions. The fence to the right was also built on site using materials from Jacksons Fencing and the corten steel screen, covering an unsightly gap in the rear wall was supplied by Stark and Greensmith.

The handsome bamboo plant was already in the raised bed to the rear, which was giving new edging and coping to match the cedar bench and the soil reconditioned. The bamboo was thinned and trimmed to let in the light and give it a boost, then underplanted with Choisya ternata 'Aztec Gold', an evergreen shrub with fine dissected leaves to throw interesting shadows against the fence and screen and with long-lasting white flowers in spring and summer.

We installed uplights in the raised bed to highlight shapes of the bamboo and other plants after dark.

The dark blue colour of the fence echoes the colour scheme inside the house. Exterior wood paint from Little Greene. 

The individual living wall pods are fixed to a framework on either side of the doors to the garden. The 1ltr pods each hold culinary herb and salad plants, including rosemary, thyme, oregano and rocket. In summer the pods will also hold a number of colourful edible flowers.

Plenty of seating with the bespoke cedar bench and the bistro table

Left: the old softwood deck was replaced by the patterned tiles, right. The built-in deck provides plenty of seating without clutter, and uses the existing wall of the raised bed as a backrest.

New planting and patio in north London

Not all projects redesign the garden from scratch. This north London garden just needed a refresh. The new paving, steps and paths were installed by Graham Thompson of Creative Landscapes.

The new planting by The Urban Hedgerow is designed to integrate with existing plants such as the dramatic irises and bring bold shapes and year-round colour to this secluded garden.

The garden is generally in partial shade with the surrounding trees, but with some sunny hot spots. We planted dahlias and agapanthus in the brightest spaces and surrounded them with more dappled shade-tolerant specimens such as Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’, the bright magenta flowers of Lychnis coronaria and snowy-white Allium ‘Mount Everest’.

Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’, Lychnis coronaria, Penstemon ‘Alice Hindley’

We added informal edging to the beds with Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ for that hazy lavender colour but with a plant rather more tolerant of clay soil. The dahlias provided spotlights of late summer colour, with Penstemon ‘Blackbird’, ‘Alice Hindley’ and ‘Sour Grapes’ adding a background palette.

The new Hit And Miss fence, supplied by Jacksons Fencing and installed by Creative Landscapes, provides an attractive backdrop and an ideal framework for climbers – we planted Clematis ‘Piilu’ towards the rear of the garden and C. ‘Remembrance’ behind the irises. A Trachelospermum jasminoides brings scent and white starry flowers to the fence opposite.

Architectural greenery in South London

The owners of this town garden in south London wanted a lush visual vista all the year round. They freely admitted that at present they didn’t spend much time in the garden and hoped that the installation of a large deck would make relaxing in the open air more enticing. They also requested artificial turf for its looks and zero maintenance.

The new deck was built using Saige composite boards and given the size of the lawn we suggested the clients should look at a high end product for an artificial turf that would stay looking good for as long as possible, selecting Easigrass’s Mayfair brand.

Cersis canadensis showing its autumn colours

The new planting centred on a number of focal points including a handsome Cersis canadensis (Forest Pansy) with its mahogany-purple leaves in autumn and bright mauve blossom in the spring, and the Cordyline australis, a firm favourite plant with the clients. The existing fig tree which threatened to dominate the whole of the left hand side of the garden was hard-pruned and thinned to create a much more open, structural shape and a fern garden at the back on the right hand side made the most of a dark, shady area.

Spotlights were installed to pick out the shapes and forms of the shrubs and small trees and make the garden visually welcoming at night.

A simple timed irrigation system ensures that the clients don’t have to worry about watering and they are happy to report that they now eat out, enjoy early evening drinks and have spent more time in the garden in the last year than in the whole of the preceding decade.

Alek and his team at Alek Nikolic Landscape Contractors did a great job building the deck and other hard landscaping in the garden. Easigrass installed the lawn. Armadillo Electrics installed the beautiful garden lighting.