A CITY GARDEN COMBINING OLD AND NEW

THE BRIEF

This large city garden was designed for family with three children. The brief was to design a garden from scratch that would deliver the family requirements and work around a smart new architect designed extension. The existing house was an imposing period property and the new proposed extension was ultra modern with lots of glass and zinc detailing. The garden needed to harmoniously bridge the two separate architectural elements, and provide useable zoned areas for the family to enjoy. Alongside the main garden, there was also a requirement to improve the street appeal of the front garden and the front driveway.

THE DESIGN

I broke the garden down into 4 main elements; a large terrace near the house for formal dining, a smaller ‘morning coffee’ terrace outside the new extension, an informal ‘firepit’ area and the lawn. These areas were linked using a mixture of gravel planting (to soften off the hard landscaping by the house), stepping stones through the lawn, and a textured sett pathway. A large amount of attention was given to the detailing in order to provide a harmonious balance between the garden and the two parts of the building. In order to tie in with the period part of the property, we colour matched the London Stone paving to the pale, creamy colour of the Bath stone detailing on the building. In order to reflect the modern building I ensured the design was crisp and fresh - and we took pains to match the details correctly. For example, the slatted detail in the wooden screens matches perfectly the slatted detailing in the building, as does the colour match with the anthracite grey. The result is a garden which provides the family with multiple zones, and wraps comfortably around the house, complementing its strong architectural features.

THE PLANTING

Rather like the garden itself, the planting was divided into zones. The gravel planting around the older part of the property really helped to soften off what would otherwise have been a very ‘hard landscaped’ area. We used soft, gentle plants in this area such as Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’, Francoa sonchifolia and Gillenia trifoliata. The planting in the bed opposite the modern extension was more theatrical and bold (to reflect the modern form opposite) and this included strong purples and oranges such as Verbena bonariensis and Helenium ‘Moorheim Beauty’. Erigeron karvinskianus is doing a wonderful job of spilling over the pathways as you wind up the path towards the fire pit, and the fire pit area itself has been tucked away behind a screen of Molinia caerula. And finally, we created more of a woodland feel in the shaded area at the back of the garden using shade plants such as ferns, and Geranium phaeum var. phaeum ‘Samobar’. We also used woodland plants such as Hellebores and Foxgloves in this area.