“Our container garden is a feast of colour”
Potted spring bulbs, shrubs and perennials create an Italianate feel in this leafy courtyard garden. Owner Jeffrey Tobias explains his approach
Potted spring bulbs, shrubs and perennials create an Italianate feel in this leafy courtyard garden
This sheltered city garden is a veritable green oasis. Surrounded on all sides by mature trees and handsome Georgian buildings, the garden has a private, leafy courtyard feel. “The main attraction is really the architecture,” asserts owner Jeffrey Tobias, who lives here with his wife Susan. “Ours and the surrounding houses were built in 1780 and we live in a lovely conservation area. We have wonderful London plane trees that spread their branches over the garden like the vaulted ribs of a great cathedral roof. I suspect they were planted when the houses were built. I take no credit for any of that!” The garden itself is mainly paved and filled with container plants of all shapes and sizes. “Generally I go for whatever will give pleasure easily – different varieties of potted narcissi, dwarf irises, aquilegias and muscari, for instance. Blue and yellow is my favourite colour combo. Obviously, we’ve timed the flower display to be at its best for our National Garden Scheme opening in spring – though of course that’s always a gamble. This year, the opening day is very, very early, on 31 March.” This date will mark the couple’s eighth consecutive year of NGS participation, and spring-flowering plants are not the only attraction. “My wife Susan’s homemade cakes and my son Max’s sourdough bread are both legendary,” says Jeffrey. “Max started up a brilliant artisan bakery called The Dusty Knuckle in 2014, employing young apprentices from tricky, often excluded backgrounds. He usually donates about 50 sourdough loaves to our events and they’re all sold, with proceeds going to the NGS. His bakery has built up an impressive client list of top notch delis, restaurants and specialist food outlets.” Container plants are key to Jeffrey’s
We’ve timed the flower display to be at its best for our NGS opening
spring displays. “People say the fact the garden is all potted and paved has given it an Italianate feel – I’m a great fan of old pots and statues, which help to set the scene. “The practical advantage of gardening in containers is their mobility. They’re a movable feast. I like to take my time looking at them, to work out where best to put them. I tend to plant for blocks of colour rather than mixing them up. It’s also a question of where the plants will be happiest, in sun or shade, and their proportions with one another. It means our planting schemes always look a little bit different every year. “In spring the garden is full of yellows, from acid-yellow euphorbias to canary yellow narcissi, as well as paperwhite jonquils, which are so aromatic they’re marvellous. For the blues there are muscari and irises – I’m rather keen on them. Because the garden is so sheltered, by mid-late April we’ll put out our early pelargoniums for a dash of pink and red too. “The euphorbias are very sculptural and dramatic, and we have some lovely hellebores too. Aquilegias self sow freely, so we have quite a lot of them. If they’re happy, I’m happy! is my most prized variety; it’s more substantial and elegant, with nice tall stems. “Our ‘Queen of Night’ tulips look gorgeous, with their poker-straight stems. We also have a wonderful creamy-white and pale green tulip with flamboyant ruffled petals called ‘White Parrot’, which goes very well with white narcissus ‘Thalia’.” Pots of Spanish bluebells arrive in late April. “I know the purists despise them,” says Jeffrey. “The colour isn’t as dazzling as our own native bluebells, but they’re very robust and do very well in containers.” When Jeffrey and Susan moved here eight years ago, the garden was rather overgrown. “It was such a pity. I think the previous owner and his gardener, both very busy people, spent all their time shovelling up leaves as there are so many trees – but it’s a nice problem to have in London. I quite like sweeping the patio!” Jeffrey turns the leaves into a nutritious leafmould ideal for mulching the small borders on the left and right. Some walls are clad in ground-planted climbers, such as wisteria and clematis ‘Snow Queen’, while mahonia and other shade-loving shrubs grow on the left. A potted Camellia japonica ‘Lavinia Maggi’ and olive tree bask in more sheltered conditions by the back door. Visitors from near and far delight in this colourful welcome. “The nicest thing about the NGS opening,” says Jeffrey, “is that people just come and sit about in the garden all afternoon eating cakes, drinking tea and making new friends.”
I tend to plant for blocks of colour, rather than mixing them up