But ‘It’s versatile a small space’
Loukia Hay and Ali de Sarriera’s urban garden behaves as an outdoor room that links seamlessly from their kitchen to give them extra space to relax, cook, eat and play
Loukia and Ali were starting from scratch: ‘The garden was just an overgrown rectangle, sloping up from the house. There was nothing except brambles, rickety fencing and rusting furniture.
‘We have Spanish and Greek heritage, and loved the idea of a Mediterranean courtyard feel. As well as places to sit, we wanted to cook and entertain, and have room for our son to play. Being able to use the space all year round was vital. We approached landscape designer Miria Harris (miriaharris.com), who drew up a split-level layout with warm brick tiling, a concrete terrace and pink rendered walls for a sun-bleached look. It leads you up through planting and past a pond to a summerhouse and outdoor kitchen at the top. We wanted the garden to be low-maintenance, so there’s an emphasis on greenery rather than flowers. That said, we have spring bulbs and perennials, such as cranesbill and astilbes for colour, too. There’s an automatic watering system in place, so it doesn’t take much to keep it in shape. The bushy evergreens need trimming and we cut the birch trees to let light through the stems.’
‘The project was completed in around nine weeks. The hard landscaping is very angular, and getting the verticals and horizontals exactly lined up was a challenge, but the finish is perfect. We have a folding table so the entertaining area can turn into a mini football pitch and the summerhouse is used for storage and play. It works like an extra room – it’s such a versatile space.’
“Coordinating interior building work with a garden redo is tricky. We had to halt progress on the garden until the kitchen doors were installed. Individual tasks took longer and we had to revise our timescale constantly”