Editor’s letter
In this issue of Gardens Illustrated we focus on design and planting ideas for small gardens, including a colourful, useful space outside an architecturally designed house in Clapham, a serpentine garden inspired by an adjacent water reserve and a family garden in Kent using vernacular materials. Cool planting with a polish is the recurring theme.
Further afield, on page 88, we visit the intriguing garden of a post-modern Californian house designed by West Coast movers and shakers Terremoto. The design of the garden includes native Californian trees and hints of the scrub and chaparral of the local landscape with the intention of drawing people and nature together.
In the 1950s Vita Sackville-West wrote from Sissinghurst that ‘Everyone knows that the seeds of hardy annuals may be sown in August and September, and that the resultant plants will be sturdier and come into flower earlier than those we sow in spring.’ With this in mind, we ask three leading plantspeople to choose their favourite hardy annuals to sow now, into the last, lingering warmth of the soil. This issue also marks my last as editor of Gardens
Illustrated and a new beginning for me. It’s been hugely thrilling to edit the genre-defining magazine, and to be one of only four editors in Gardens
Illustrated’s 28-year history, as well as to work with such a brilliant editorial team. Gardens Illustrated is considered by many to be a national treasure and I look forward to following its continued success.
I hope you enjoy the issue,