A courtyard garden designed for a small rural site near Marlow in Buckinghamshire. The garden sits between two buildings and adjoins a detached 1960s bungalow. It contains lush planting, chosen for its textural interest and limited colour palette, punctuated by two multi-stem Prunus serrula trees and a self-supporting metal structure for evergreen climbers – both adding vertical interest and detracting from the wall of the neighbouring property.

A limestone terrace, raised to sit flush with the house, contains integrated benches and space for a dining table, and affords views over the rolling countryside beyond the boundary hedge. The bench and water feature in the sunken gravel courtyard provide a sheltered place to sit after dark; bespoke Corten steel panels are mounted to the opposite wall and backlit at night to provide a focal point at dusk.

This garden was shortlisted for a Prolandscaper Project Award 2024

Hestia Garden draws inspiration from the element of fire: it is at the heart of the dining experience here and the theme is continued throughout the garden. The design embraces the instinctive sense of community that a fire brings, a central ’beacon’ encourages people to gather around it.

Specimen trees within ‘islands’ of planting serve to divide the space into a series of intimate dining rooms, each one partially screened from the next. Soft, ethereal perennials and grasses provide movement and translucency, as well as textural interest and colour, helping to define the routes through the garden and frame the views in every direction.

The understated elegance of the 1930s architecture provided the basis for this design, with its juxtaposition of old and new. Formal pleached trees and clipped shrubs nod to the traditional, while a softer, informal mix of perennials, grasses and ferns improves biodiversity, bringing the scheme up-to-date with today’s environmental considerations.

A ‘one-skip build’ was achieved on this project: existing brick paths, concrete crazy paving and dated riven sandstone slabs were crushed on site for reuse as bases for the terrace and pathways.

This garden was inspired by the Grade II listed Georgian townhouse inspired the design – the back garden is split into a series of ‘rooms’ by bespoke screens. The laser cut patterns allow a partial view through and the geometric motif references Georgian period furniture. A formal ‘dining room’ forms the hub of the garden, with a hidden seating area beneath a bespoke pergola beyond.

The Georgian ‘plant hunter’ inspired the exotic plant choices, adding a playful twist to the classical Georgian scheme of espalier fruit trees and clipped Yew, and using the walled garden microclimate. Foliage-rich planting gives year-round texture, with species selected to help counter air pollution for this central London location.

This garden was shortlisted for a Society of Garden Designers Award 2021.

The garden is inspired by Chesham Bois, an area of woodland that can be seen from the garden, and a deciding factor in the purchase of the house. I wanted to give the clients an immersive experience, where they feel like they are stepping into the edge of the wood every time they use their garden. The clients are fans of modernist architecture, so the design and materials palette are inspired by the clean lines and strong geometry of their 1960s house.
This garden won a Society of Garden Designers Award 2020.