Garden Before with Lawn
When I initially visited this garden it had a tired lawn and large overgrown shrubs that dominated the small space. It was also disjointed with a separate seating area at the bottom of the garden which
Garden at Bottom Before
was never used. My brief was to replace the lawn with paving and create a courtyard garden which would be much easier to maintain. The large shrubs were also replaced with smaller ones and Mediterranean plants that suited the sunny aspect.
Once the shrubs were removed, the garden instantly felt much larger and brighter. The owners wanted to keep some seating at the bottom of the garden, so a wooden pergola was built here with room for a bistro style table and chairs.
They were also keen to add a focal point in their new garden in terms of a sculpture. For this they commissioned a local metal designer Arcangel to create an individual piece for
them and I planted a favourite grass, Stipa tenuissima around it. Because the garden was now predominantly paved it was important to keep the planting soft and allow plants to billow over the hard edges or grow amongst small planting pockets in the stone. For this I used Erigeron karvinskianus and Thymus Silver Posie.
