Tall plants and clever zoning heighten the sense of concealment and discovery in a family garden that’s all about having fun

Designers Harriet Farlam and Ben Chandler have squeezed much into this serene town garden on the north Kent coast

Hide and seek

It’s not unusual for a garden to be redesigned after a house has been extended, but it is very unusual for both interior and exterior work to be carried out by the homeowners themselves. “This was quite a special project, because our clients were every bit as committed to getting the details right as we were,” says Harriet Farlam of the small town garden that she and partner Ben Chandler have transformed with a design of great poise and polish.

Tucked behind a tiny, listed cottage in Whitstable, on the north Kent coast, the garden runs out from a contemporary extension that has clearly been created for a family that relishes the outdoor life on offer in this magical location. Sliding panels of plate glass mean the whole back of the house can be opened up whenever the weather allows, and polished concrete floors run seamlessly from inside out on to a terrace.

“Our brief was to create a really usable garden, with lots of space for entertaining, as well as a lawn for play and a private terrace next to the garden studio at the rear,” says Harriet. “Like their interiors, which are really smart but unfussy, the clients wanted stylish but low-maintenance planting, and an outdoor shower to wash away the sand after a day on the beach.”

It was an awful lot to fit into a garden measuring just 20m x 7.5m and in lesser hands could easily have felt uncomfortably cramped, but Harriet and Ben have managed to wrangle that long wish list into a serene and practical design. “We did have to squeeze the space to death, but it

has ended up feeling really calm,” agrees Harriet. Behind this successful sleight of hand lies the creative deployment of a series of tried-and-tested techniques.

First, the main elements, including the lawn and terrace, are all relatively large. “It’s a common mistake to think that small features will look better in a small garden, when in fact the opposite is usually true,” says Harriet.

Second, the palette has been restricted to a predominantly green planting scheme combined with warm hard-landscaping materials. The fences have been painted rich black to echo the frame of the new house extension, and will in any case soon disappear under a mass of glossy green star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides). The glassfronted studio at the bottom of the garden is partially veiled by a spectacular multistemmed hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), and the lawn is enclosed by a simple cloud hedge of naturally low-growing Pittosporum tobira studded with dwarf pine (Pinus mugo).

Finally, the design creates a suggestion of interlinking ‘garden rooms’ by cutting across the width of this narrow space with a series of strong, horizontal elements. These include strips of crushed shell studded with thyme and saxifrage that have been set into the terrace, two timber-framed raised beds filled with an ornamental mix of Mediterranean plants and a pair of rusted Corten steel screens that zig-zag towards the heart of the garden. “Actually those steel fins are not just decorative,” says Harriet. “The one closest to the house hides a really awkward change in ground level, and the one at the end encloses the outdoor shower.”

It is this clever combination of form and function that sets Farlam & Chandler’s design apart, but it is the immaculate realisation of that design by their talented clients that elevates this garden from the home-made into something very special indeed.

It’s a common mistake to think that small features will look better in a small garden, when the opposite is usually true

This small but elegant seaside garden faces southeast and in the early morning, as the sun rises above its boundary, the space is dramatically brought to life by slanting beams of light, which highlight the contrasting textures of velvety grass lawn and polished concrete terrace.

Tucked away on one side of the terrace outside the kitchen, the dining area is screened by a fig tree underplanted with trouble-free Mediterranean species, including woolly thyme, Salvia argentea, Ballota pseudodictamnus and pale-lavender irises.

Below left Looking back towards the house, a lush, green lawn framed by mounds of Pinus mugo and Pittosporum tobira is neatly bookended by a bold, diagonal sheet of Corten steel that encloses the polished concrete terrace, creating a sense of interconnecting rooms with different but complementary characters.

Clockwise from top left 1 White Allium nigrum, backed by a Corten steel screen, rises out of mounds of Pinus mugo and Pittosporum tobira;

5 The powder-coated steel furniture is all from the Palissade range designed for Hay.

2 Magenta-flowered Dianthus carthusianorum and a tussock of Saxifraga ‘Monarch’ grow in a strip of crushed shells;

4 An awkward corner is turned into a stylish set piece with a tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica) rising from a sea of Hakonechloa macra and ferns;

3 At the heart of the garden the planting is predominantly cool and green;