Garden of the Week
A London couple have created a well-thought-out sanctuary, rich in colours and textures with a strictly limited colour palette
Stephen and Ruth Kersley couldn’t wait to get started on their neglected garden when they moved into their home in 2002. A scruffy lawn with narrow borders, a disintegrating path and some fallen trees – there was certainly plenty of work to tackle. But after they’d cleared the ground, they found themselves at a sticking point.
“I put a bed here and a new border there, but something didn’t look quite right and we couldn’t work out why,” explains Stephen. He signed up to do a three-year diploma in garden design at Capel Manor in his spare time, and using some of the principles he’s learned during his studies, combined with Ruth’s talents as a fine artist, the garden has been transformed into a carefully thought-out sanctuary with a deliberately limited palette of colours.
“Like many town plots, we have limited views, so you need to use strong geometry to keep the eye in the garden,” explains Stephen.
He created some beds at a 45-degree angle along one side of the garden, with a large border on the opposite edge, making the garden appear wider than it is. He also divided the space three quarters of the way down, planting a hedge
(yew and cypress) to screen with a wrought iron arch, covered in climbing roses, to tease the eye through. “Before we did any planting, we wanted to make sure we’d got the underlying design absolutely right.”
Stephen double dug the beds, then fed and mulched them. “When we started I had to borrow a pick axe to get through the top layer, but once we’d broken up the structure, we could start to improve it, and now it’s beautiful to work with. I don’t wear gloves when I garden, I like to feel the texture.”
When it came to the planting, Stephen chose a backbone of evergreens to create year-round interest. These include myrtle, selected for its deep green foliage, and cotoneaster, with its colourful coat of winter berries. By the house, they planted
Elaeagnus ebbingei,
which has a delicious, pervasive scent from cream flowers produced in late autumn.
Stephen explains that when he chose the herbaceous plants, the emphasis was on repeat planting in groups of three or five, opting for a strict colour code. “We chose a simple palette of green, yellow and mauve, interspersed with plants that make a statement, such as a splash of white geums. It makes life easier when you’re faced with plant temptation. If the colour is wrong, we don’t look at it!”
When planting, Stephen says: “It’s so important to be aware how large your plants will be in three to five years’ time. This is crucial in a smaller garden, as it prevents overplanting,” says Stephen.
He has used many grasses to boost their year-round plot, with favourites including pheasant’s tail grass, Stipa arundinacea. “You get a lovely bronze colour in autumn, and it catches the sun, especially after rain. If they grow too large, they’re easy to pull out and have the great advantage of self seeding.”
They have a love of trees and, with careful consideration, were able to find ones to suit their limited space. A slow growing paperbark maple, Acer griseum, was chosen for its rich red bark, and Ruth and Stephen selected acer ‘Masukagami’ for its shape and slender trunk. “In spring and autumn, it is ablaze with colour,” says Ruth.
Interest is also created with Ruth’s fused glass sculptures, which are inspired by nature and carefully placed throughout the garden to create focal points, or to complement specific plants. “We do have some permanent
ones, but the others can be rearranged to catch the low winter light, for example,” she explains.
Even the most carefully laid plans can go awry, however. “We make mistakes all the time!” laughs Stephen. When they planted their yew hedge at the bottom of the garden, a high water table meant that permanently soggy roots prevented it from thriving. “I had to take half of it out and replace it with cypress.” A water feature, designed by Stephen, was much too small and had to be rebuilt. “It’s great to experiment and then learn when things don’t work,” he says.
Though Ruth jokes that she’s the ‘builder’s mate’, teamwork is clearly key to the their harmonious garden. “We like to do everything ourselves,” says Stephen. “Even at this time of year I’m outside every single day. It’s so therapeutic.”