Garden Design for East London

Brief

At the beginning of the year we went to visit this couple who were looking for a garden designer in East London. They were in the process of renovating the interior of their house and were now turning their attentions to the exterior.

They wanted to revive their garden and make it become part if the renovations. Katrina spent a couple of hours with them looking at the garden and offering some ideas as to what they could do with the terrace house garden design.

Solution

After a sketch was produced and the garden design contracts signed, Katrina has been working on the design in the studio over the last few weeks. She went to present the back and front garden design on Saturday, and over stages the works will commence in a couple of months. You can see the project in its entirety detailed below.

Since the clients bought this property 5 years ago they have undertaken sporadic and incomplete landscaping works. This included the installation of a home office and the construction of a large brick built koi carp pond. Both features are to remain in the final design. The clients are currently having their kitchen extended and would like the garden to compliment the finished works. They would like to undertake some gardening and would like somewhere to grow vegetables, but do not want a high maintenance garden as their spare time is limited. The design should include provision for outdoor dining and something to mask the bulky and unsightly pond filtration system.

Staged over two terraces the patio next to the house will be paved with mint fossil Indian sandstone in a random pattern. An evergreen jasmine will be trained along the fence with herbs planted underneath. 3 fibreglass tapered planters planted with standard bay will create interest while viewing the garden from the lounge window. The existing raised bed and retaining walls will be rendered and painted Aubergine to add some warm colour to the space. A sandstone pathway will stretch down the upper level of the garden bisecting the lawn. The lawn itself will be edged with sandstone setts. Borders running down either side of the lawn will be planted with herbaceous perennials and climbers.

A raised rendered bed constructed halfway down the upper level will be painted Aubergine and adorned with a Moroccan tile border to create an eye-catching feature that echoes the Moroccan influence of the clients table (which will be placed on the main patio.) The raised bed will be backed by a wrought iron Moroccan screen over which climbing plants will be trained to partially conceal the area beyond. A series of three wrought iron half arches will help demarcate the entrance to the second half of the garden which is dominated by the existing pond. The design seeks to make more of a feature of the pond with the addition of a large decked daybed at the far end. The daybed will provide a place for the user to make the most of the sunshine and watch the fish while concealing the pond filtration unit. The design of the structure will allow easy access to the filtration unit for maintenance. A Moroccan-inspired water feature will feed into the existing pond to introduce the sound of running water to the area and improve the aesthetic of the pond.

A planting bed to the left of this area will be left clear for the client to plant vegetables, and a pear espalier encouraged to grow against the wall of the home office. Step over fruit trees with sett edging around the base create a natural border for the vegetables to grow between.