A garden for everything: taking a collaborative approach turns a building site into an entertaining oasis to make memories in

A place for everything and everything in its place. That’s the story of this North London garden where our designers accommodated a lengthy wish-list in a space that feels fun, fresh and highly contemporary.

In this relatively small garden, an exciting and lush secret courtyard feel has been created. With areas for lounging, gathering with friends and dining, this is a fantastic social space for the whole day long from morning coffee in the sun to wrapping up and gathering around the fire pit into the night. A pizza oven and BBQ provide the perfect tools for keen foodies to try new dishes and cook outside. Layers of detail in the kitchen, lighting, surfaces and boundaries compliment the internal interior and architectural finishes creating a space our clients love to spend time in.

Design

The brief for this garden was to create a modern urban garden was to incorporate a long wish list of features with interesting finishes and exciting planting. This rear garden is at the back of a 3 storey terraced house in the Highbury and Islington area of London that was undergoing complete re-design and extension with architectural design by Paul Archer. The garden incorporated the newly formed terrace and step sitting above the basement slab and our design needed to provide a seamless but interesting transition between the house and garden space. Our clients love cooking and a bespoke built in kitchen with preparation and dining area was required. The design divides the garden into two main parts. The large firepit and entertaining area is closest to the house, and reached by stepping down from the terrace, a detail GCL engineered to conjure the feeling of a sunken courtyard within a garden. The feeling is heightened by the dark tone of the clay pavers, which also allow water to permeate into the earth beneath, avoiding problems with run-off. A generous semi-circular seat, with its chunky iroko slats reminiscent of piano keys, is cleverly cut on an oblique angle, leading the eye into the space without blocking the view from the kitchen and adding a sense of dynamism. Raised planting beds nestle around the seat immersing you in the foliage and flowers.

Beyond, one steps up into the kitchen and dining area where a contemporary table and bench from Hay’s ‘Palissade’ range complement the geometric lines of the powder-coated steel pergola. Subtle downlighters in the terrazzo splash back provide task lighting while three woven pendant lights add to the atmosphere. This creates a really cosy, intimate area, without it being over illuminated.

Site preparation and build

Fitting all that into a large garden would be no mean feat, but to make it look good in a space that is only around 10 x 6m took some serious creativity. As so often in London, the only access was through the house, which was undergoing an extensive refurbishment, so the GCL team had to be careful to source and specify pieces (such as the pergola and curved seat – both of which had to be made in sections) that could be carried through the house without damaging any of the fixtures. We worked closely with the main contractor who helped to implement the clearance, brickwork, electrical works and hardscape ensuring that the logistics and schedule were carefully co-ordinated.

The planting

With the basement slab, furniture and hard landscaping, there simply wasn’t room or suitable soil conditions for any planting in the ground and as garden designers our greatest challenge in this type of space is avoiding the space feeling harsh and yard-like. We knew we’d have to make the planting really bold with lots of texture and architectural interest to unify it and make it inviting. This planting scheme called for the inclusion of eye-catching foliage plants including Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’; a handsome tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica; and repeated plantings of Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra, creating a lush, tropical feel.

Working through our planting design with a dream list of species, we used the restrictions of container gardening to our advantage, too, planting several plants with completely different soil requirements in close proximity. This is best seen in the lounge area, where Yucca rostrata (a drought-tolerant desert plant), Equisetum camtschatcense (a Russian native needing permanently moist conditions) and the Japanese banana, Musa basjoo, thrive in individual pots while together creating a stunning visual display against the charred black cladding behind.

Aside from the rich palette of greens, colour – mainly oranges and reds to complement the Corten steel – comes from perennials including Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Fat Domino’ and Canna ‘Tropicanna Black’ with its beautiful dark foliage. The stag’s horn sumach (Rhus typhina) also contributes in this respect, offering stunning autumn hues and furry dark red fruits that last throughout winter and sculptural stems.