Fruitful Space

A garden framed with produce and colour

Edible plants give you a wonderful seasonal garden and are a great way of using space,” says landscape architect Robert Watson, who helped redesign Ross Palmer and Craig Seagar’s townhouse garden.

When they purchased the property, the 8m x 14m x 8m triangular garden, which opens from the house along the hypotenuse, comprised a tiny lawn with metre-deep borders along the fences.

When faced with a small space, the natural response is to push everything to the boundaries. In fact, one should do the opposite says Watson, whose design features high steel espalier frames for fruit trees set in a metre from the fences. This not only gives the garden vertical scale but also creates the illusion of space by suggesting there is more ‘behind the hedge’.

The frames have been spray-painted black and timber trellises and fences stained dark charcoal, making them recede into the background while at the same time providing a sharp backdrop for foliage and flowers.

A rill flowing from an obscured font in the far corner to a central pond further draws attention away from the boundaries. The lawn has gone and the courtyard laid with easy-care lime chip.

“We wanted less work and more food,” says Seagar, and their garden is scoring high on both counts. The espaliered nectarine, plum and peach are laden and a pair of ‘Taihape’ quinces so bountiful that they must be quick to pick the fruit before the branches break. Berry bushes share their beds with leafy vegetables while herbs and seasonal dwarf beans flourish in pots.

“Nothing beats the simple pleasure of walking out and picking your own produce,” says Seagar. And they are happy to share it with friends, both human and winged, the fruit trees and berries attracting birds to the garden as well as providing blooms for bees. The edibles are interspersed with flowering perennials and anchored with groundcovers, a gentle undercurrent of blue linking the garden elements. Small clouds of catmint and scrambling ‘Rozanne’ geranium grow under fruit trees while the powdery leaves of Hosta ‘Big Daddy’ lighten a dark corner.

The pond is edged with bluestone paving and filled with luminous water irises while, alongside, a steel-blue table and pair of chairs make an inviting place for contemplation as well as dining. With the sound of trickling water, delicate fragrance of blossom and taste of handpicked fruit, this is a garden for all the senses as well as all the seasons.

“Berry bushes share their beds with leafy vegetables while herbs and seasonal dwarf beans flourish in pots.”