The illusion of space!

This small garden in Coventry has been cleverly designed and planted so it feels larger than it is

When Jon and Karen Venables moved into their new build 21 years ago, all they had was a lawn at the back and some fairly standard shrubs in the front and side gardens. Pretty standard for new houses. Both front and back gardens needed a full makeover, which Jon planned on paper first, with extensive planting to create the fabulous gardens they have now. “One of the main purposes for the back garden was to develop gorgeous views from our kitchen window. So, we made deep borders, put up a pergola, and created two lovely seating areas to ensure we had great places to relax,” says Jon.

The small, walled back garden feels larger than it really is. This is thanks to its open aspect, there are very few houses nearby that impose on the ambience and

Jon’s initial planning. “Also, the plants in the side garden act as a ‘borrowed landscape’, which adds to the larger illusion,” Jon explains.

The patio near the house is adorned with beautifully-planted pots surrounding a bench. The winding S-shaped lawn leads you past two deep flower beds to the smaller second patio enclosed by an L-shaped pergola and planted raised beds made from railway sleepers containing dwarf conifers, intermingling with euonymus and bedding plants. The pergola is bedecked with climbers, from a honeysuckle at one end entwined with striking red clematis ‘Princess Diana’ to an incredibly floriferous montana clematis alongside a dwarf wisteria.

Because this garden faces east, the two borders provide very distinctive conditions. “The right

hand bed faces north and is home to typical shade-loving plants, such as ferns and hostas, but aquilegias, astrantia, digitalis, Gillenia trifoliata, heucheras and tiarellas add their floral and foliar magic.”

It’s also home to several shrubs that add height and all-year-round interest. These include Japanese maples, camellia, Fatsia japonica, pyracantha and viburnum. On the left-hand side is the sunny border. This is predominantly planted with a wide selection of beautiful herbaceous perennials, such as the Balkan clary, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, Shasta daisies, geraniums and prairie mallow, mingling with Lamium maculatum.

“We added height and created a focal point with a wooden obelisk clothed in climbing rose ‘Lady Penelope’ intertwining with contrasting clematis ‘Arabella’.” More height and interest comes from conifers and shrubs, including hydrangea and a beautiful lilac.

At the front, the pavement curves around the garden, creating a quarter circle. Here, a central flower bed is surrounded by a low box hedge and topiary balls. A standard variegated euonymus provides height and interest in the centre of the bed. It also contains a mix of perennial planting, including

Salvia nemorosa ‘Rose Marvel’, coreopsis ‘Uptick Cream’ and

Gaillardia grandiflora ‘Mesa Red’. “We’re really pleased with how the front border came out, especially this lovely combination together with iberis ‘Masterpiece’ framed against the dark green leaves of

Buxus sempervirens.” The bed is surrounded by a lavender hedge which, when in bloom, becomes a magnet for bees and butterflies. “We’ve counted 400 bees on the hedge when it’s in full flower.”

Two beautifully made bespoke windowboxes (courtesy of Jon’s talented woodworking father)

adorn the front window. These, along with a matching large wooden planter, are filled with summer bedding plants such as pelargoniums, nemesia, lobelia and petunias. In winter, Jon swaps these for winter-flowering pansies. Finishing the spectacle are clematis ‘Miss Bateman’ and ‘Arabella’ adorning the walls either side of the window. Going around the front garden towards the side there was an area of dead space, which Jon and Karen have converted to a lovely rockery.

As this is mostly north-facing they’ve used shade-loving plants such as ferns, pulmonaria, dwarf conifers and heucherellas.

This leads to the side garden, which mainly consists of large shrubs, pyracantha, holly, buddleja, Elaeagnus submacrophylla and a mature silver birch (Betula pendula) that frame a lovely small wildflower meadow, which used to be a grass verge. “This has been re-seeded this year to introduce more flowering species. It’s easy to look after, it just needs a couple of trims a year.”

Thanks to the initial design and planting, the garden still looks good in December. The shape of the lawn, the borders and pergola always look good from the kitchen window. “The large Fatsia japonica is always the star of the show in winter as it puts on a display of flowers and seed heads, along with its fantastic evergreen foliage. The conifers help to keep the borders interesting, while

Viburnum tinus bushes, winterflowering jasmine and hellebore ‘White Beauty’ add floral interest.”

At this time of year, the garden pretty much looks after itself and there’s not too much to do apart from deadheading winterflowering bedding plants and tidying up dead leaves. But twice a year, after flowering, Jon trims the clematis over the pergola with bonsai shears to remove the spent flower stems, which look unsightly. A true labour of love as it’s incredibly time consuming.

Left, the shapes of the ‘crown-lifted’ Japanese maples have occurred naturally, with a li le help by Jon snipping away lower stems to aid plants growing underneath. Right, pops of colour from bedding The smallish garden looks deceptively large thanks to the tall, mature planting and trees. The lawn is simply maintained with good mowing and tends to look after itself. Jon regularly checks for weeds and removes them before they get a foothold In among high summer hues an obelisk provides height and support for roses and clematis. Below, under the standard euonymus hot-red gaillardia mingles with lavender