Existing planting was the jumping off point for a brand new design
DESIGNER CHARLOTTE ROWE SHARES HOW EXISTING PLANTING PROVIDED THE JUMPING OFF POINT FOR A NEW LOOK IN THIS EAST LONDON GREEN SPACE
The existing space in this east London garden was already in a good condition, but although well planted, it did not provide the usable entertaining areas that our client wanted.
Some elements needed overhauling in order to achieve the correct mood. In particular, the raised area at the end was fake grass. Our client wanted discrete living zones – so we designed two seating areas, one by the house and one surrounded by planting in the middle of the garden, and a dining area at the end.
No lawn was required so although the garden is mainly paved with some gravel areas, we decided to create a journey through it using a series of large planted areas. The combination of limestone paving, gravel and wide island planting beds makes the garden feel larger than its actual size of 100 square metres.
The planting combines structural plants, including shrubs such as Sarcococca confusa and Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’, and low Taxus hedging sprinkled with perennials, grasses and climbers, including Rosa ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’, Astrantia ‘Moulin Rouge’, Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Taurus’ and Sedum ‘Matrona’.
We made use of the existing structural planting, which included a Robinia tree and the Acer palmatum. For spring interest there’s Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ and the black foliage is the Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, which brings drama to a compact space.
For the planting colour palette, we took as our starting point the multi-stemmed Acer palmatum with deep burgundy leaves and an established tree peony with a burgundy red flower and chose plants to complement. We even carried this through to the choice of furniture and pots.
“In town gardens, don’t use too many materials or colours”