A tree-filled treat!
Over two decades, this sheltered London garden has been filled with an abundance of rare and unusual trees and shrubs
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Words Marina Jordan-Rugg Photos Marianne Majerus
When Mona Abboud bought her 1930s terraced north London house in 2000, the long, narrow back garden was fairly typical of the area, with a few flower beds, a couple of trees and a lot of lawn. Through a series of captioned photographs on her website, it’s fascinating to witness the transformation of the plot over the past 24 years under her care.
“I bought this house with the very purpose of making the
Left, the crowns of many trees have been lifted to introduce life and space underneath. Right, bamboo screening blends well with vibrant corokia leaves garden my own and filling it with whatever plants I wanted,” she says. “I’ve lived in many places around the world and have always been fascinated by the different plants I saw, so I created my own landscape focusing mainly on unusual shrubs and trees. For me they are the stars of the garden.”
There’s no road access to the plot, so all the materials and plants had to be wheelbarrowed down a small alleyway. “In total I must have shifted about 300 tonnes of soil, gravel, bricks and granite,” she says. “And I often worked into the night because it all had to be moved in one go – I couldn’t leave it in the alleyway.”
To create structural interest in the long open space, she started with a central brick path and formal fountain, with a gravel pathway leading down through the garden. Mediterranean plants were her first love but wouldn’t grow well in her heavy clay, so she
stress rather than the cold winter. However, I think it helped that I went round with a broom and knocked the snow off them!”
To help introduce these versatile shrubs to a wider audience, she has established a Plant Heritage National Plant Collection of nearly 50 different species and cultivars and written a book, Corokia: My Adventure, about how she garnered the collection. A new cultivar that appeared in her collection as a chance seedling has been named for her – ‘Mona’s Magic’.
Above, phormiums and hardy palms add a touch of the tropics! Below, colours and textures abound, including the fiery stems of cornus, strappy-leaved phormiums and golden Acacia dealbata