MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Award-winning small garden
A modest plot has been
transformed into an award-winning family garden that combines contemporary
landscaping, year-round colour and hidden play areas
When Magda D’Ingeo and her husband, Jason Ward, moved into their new-build home in Reigate, Surrey, the garden was little more than a patch of fenced-in lawn and some concrete paving slabs. ‘It wasn’t until our daughter was born that I began to see the small plot from a fresh perspective. I wanted to create a natural playground for her to enjoy and an attractive space for Jason and I to entertain and unwind in, so I designed a garden within a garden,’ explains Magda, 47.
Her clever use of space impressed the judges of House Beautiful’s Glorious Gardens competition, who voted her winner of the Small Garden Category, for plots less than 350 square metres in size. Magda takes up the story…
‘In 2006, three years after we moved in, we extended the rear of the house. The garden was ruined in the process and when I tried to cultivate it again, I made the mistake of buying plants I liked at great expense, planting them and then realising they weren’t going to thrive. The soil was terrible – full of builders’ rubble – and we have two soakaways for drainage, surrounded by concrete, which are impossible to plant over. It’s also a northeast-facing plot, so you only get sun for part of the day, and as it’s shallow and wide – just
8 x 12 metres – all of it is on show from the house. After our daughter, Annabella, was born in 2012, I discovered a new vigour for gardening and decided to redesign our outdoor space.
Growing up, I got so much pleasure from being surrounded by plants. My father was born and raised in Sicily, and he didn’t have a garden until we moved as a family to England. He delighted in sharing it with me, pointing out the constant changes, and I wanted to create something similar for Annabella. What I didn’t want, however, was to fill the space with plastic toys that would be strewn across the lawn, so I had to think about how I could make the plot work for all of us.
Originally, I had consecutive circles in mind for the design, but I couldn’t get it to work on paper. When I began to draw geometric shapes instead, using a series of intersecting rectangles, incorporating a decking area and patio, to frame a central lawn, it then all came together very quickly. Italian gardens have a similar formality, which has always appealed to me, particularly the overlapping squares and rectangles, softened by large, lush borders that build height and texture.
I hid play areas for Annabella in the layout, including a trellis arch complete with rope swing; a vine-covered treehouse; a secret garden decorated with a trompe l’oeil mirror to give an illusion of length, and a sandpit that doubles as a coffee table. Limited space meant I had to be creative to squeeze all these features in, which is why they’re mostly
dual purpose. When it came to choosing new plants for the deep borders and decking area, I spent a lot of time thinking about the seasons and their impact on the garden. It used to look so bare and lifeless in the winter months, so I’ve sacrificed a little summer colour to ensure I get the year-round balance right. I’ve chosen a backbone of evergreen grasses, ferns and shrubs, which offer colour and structure all year. They’re combined with autumn-flowering cherry, Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, Japanese anemones, silver birch and Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ to provide colour and texture throughout the autumn and winter.
In early spring, there are primulas, hellebores and euphorbia, as well as crab apple blossom. Later on, an abundance of foxgloves, alliums and other billowing perennials bring vibrancy and scent, and soften the linear landscaping. I’ve purposefully selected plants that will flourish despite our difficult, acidic soil and northeastern position, and will fit in with my colour palette of pinky-purples, white, lime green and peach.
The materials I’ve used are hardwearing and once Annabella outgrows the play areas, they can easily be planted up. In a few years, she’ll stop using the sandpit, but we’ll be left with a functional coffee table with storage for cushions. Her secret garden is currently over one of the soakaways, and although I’ll never be able to plant there, we could put raised beds in to grow cut flowers. Things are always changing and, happily, my garden will never be finished!’