David Johnson Garden Design and Consultancy

A small, self-contained garden in South London

This little garden was one of my favourite early projects, and it remains so. Fenced on three sides, and bounded by the property on its fourth side, the garden is quite enclosed, but benefits from good light in that it faces South East. Strictly speaking, a really good tidy up was required, and existing planting had become very overgrown and was restricting the limited space still further. The garden was less than ten metres in length, and even less wide, so maximising space was absolutely essential. The clients wanted the garden to be "divided" into two distinct areas, one for informal leisure (with a cottage, English planting feel), the second area for entertaining guests, and given over to a more modern planting style. There were several existing features that were to be retained, namely a table and chairs, a portable barbecue, a small raised water feature and a wooden bench.

The "before" pictures below show the degree to which the garden had become overgrown, and the reasons for the tidy-up:

The garden had become barely accessible, due to overgrown lavender and climbing roses to the east side.

The garden had  some nice features, such as the small raised water feature which was kept, and the portable barbecue also required a suitable location.

It's difficult in a garden of this size to create a feeling of space, let alone have discrete areas. Given the desire to have two main areas, one for informal English planting, one for more exotic specimens, it was decided to effectively dissect the garden with trellis panels running from from east to west. This way, there would be distinction between the two areas, but open trellis would not restrict light, leaving an open feeling.

Paving was made much more random to give a feeling of variable width and depth, in an attempt to create a feeling that there is much more space in the garden than reality permits. The result is shown in the following two shots, taken just after completion of the hardworks and prior to planting. The clients were lucky enough to have access to a local landscape contractor who was "starting out", and wanted small projects to cut his teeth on - his desire to impress is shown in the quality of the work which was excellent:

One of the many questions I get asked by clients is "How long will it be before the garden looks like a garden?".Well, results are seldom instantaneous, but this garden was built during the tail end of winter. Planted then in early spring, it quickly became established. The following pictures were, I believe, taken during the second full season, so it just goes to show that an acceptable degree of maturity can be achieved in under two seasons. The garden looks stunning, balanced, and what is more surprising, spacious:

The garden certainly seems to have the cat's approval, but then maybe there were fish in the pond.....

To Contact Me:

Phone: (01903) 891507

Mobile: 07765 114562

Email: downsscape@aol.com