My client in London had two small children, a dog and a 1.7m drop from their new extension to the garden.
They like colour, materials with texture, plants with interesting foliage, and in practical terms they wanted to keep a lawn and incorporate a terrace for their garden studio – oh and get down elegantly from the kitchen to the garden.
I designed the garden in two parts.
A curved bright blue kitchen terrace creates an outside space where the family can all sit to eat and entertain, encircled with an in-built bed planted with steely blue grasses and purple highlights. A specimen size Fig pops its head up to terrace level from the garden below. There is also a fabulous storage shed underneath it.
The lower level lawned garden is reached down steps which hug and curl around the terrace. All the planting is in raised bright blue rendered beds, both to help with the poorly drained boggy London clay soil and give height and privacy to the garden. The raised beds also curve, enclosing the studio terrace, and are planted with strong foliage plants and climbers to add evergreen texture and ultimately screen the boundaries.
