Our gardens

Pots and planters were key to creating this peaceful, roof terrace garden design. Transforming it from a bare concrete desert. The variety of planters and pots gave interest and focal points, and provided an interesting backdrop in themselves for the many types of plants used.

Plants of varying heights, colours and textures were chosen, to ensure that whatever the season different plants would be growing and flowering.

A trellis was put up to provide a screen from surrounding buildings and also shelter from the weather. Black polystone planters were arranged below and climbers such as Trachelospermum jasminoideswere planted and trained up the trellis. These were underplanted with great roof terrace plants such as Agapanthus, Lavender, Stipa tenuissima and Salvia nemorosa, plus seasonal bedding such as colourful Cosmos, Geraniums, and Cyclamen in the winter.

Every space was filled with interesting pots and plants so ‘the eye can travel’. Wall-mounted pots provided fun splashes of colour. Ferns were chosen for shady spots, and large structural plants like Bay, Olive and Phormium helped define and create bold shapes.

The seating area provided a welcome place for relaxing and enjoying the sights, scents and sounds of the beautiful planting in this urban garden oasis in central London.

The house was a traditional white stucco-fronted Victorian residence with several small balconies and deep windowsills. Although smart it lacked any sense of life and colour, and felt rather bare.

The newly installed planters and plants give symmetry and strongly defined shapes, with a simple colour scheme, to maximise the planting space outside windows and on the balconies. The clients can enjoy the planting from both outside and from within their property.

In planning the plant selection, we assessed all available spaces and access points, and also gave thought to aspect, sunlight and watering. Black polystone planters were chosen throughout as a simple formal backdrop for the plants. Simplicity was the key for this design as the house is ornate in its Italianate style.

New hardwood Balau decking was installed to encourage enjoyment and use of the master balcony area.

For evergreen structure, we planted Bay full standards, Box pyramid, and Box balls, plus standard loose head Olive trees were selected. Seasonal bedding (in this season, Heather) was used as underplanting, along with Liriope and Agapanthus to keep to a simple colour palette.

All plants are low maintenance and suited for the urban environment. They simply require tidying, occasional pruning and regular watering on our fortnightly garden maintenance visits, with changeover of seasonal bedding every few months. The clients are happy with the seasonal colour and defined outlines of the planting, giving life and subtle vibrancy to their home.

This garden was an enjoyable challenge – we were working from a bare plot save for one central mature tree and a few smaller trees around the perimeter. The garden needed a complete design and vision, with consideration given both to how the garden looked and felt while outside, and the view of the garden from the house through the many floor to ceiling windows.

As a starting point for the design, a new lawn was planned around the central Oak tree. A winding gravel path was planned to encourage the owners to take a relaxing wander through the areas of the garden.

At the side of the house a simple stream had been installed as a water feature. Betula trees with their beautiful white bark trunks were planted here and lit for dramatic effect.

With a number of existing trees in and around the site, the overall planting scheme was chosen to create an evergreen woodland feel, with bursts of colour. Plants such as Ferns, Helleborus, Liriope Muscari and Acanthus Mollis were selected to be in keeping with this environment and to work with the shade.

The finishing touches were a bench surrounding the trunk of the large Oak tree, and a log cabin with planting around it, creating quiet contemplative spots from which to enjoy the garden.

The client was delighted with the finished garden, and the house was ready for viewings.

This garden was an exciting challenge to turn the overgrown neglected jungle into a welcoming, functioning, contemporary family garden.

After a week’s worth of clearance, some tree work and installing new boundary fencing, we had a blank canvas to implement the new design layout. The layout of the garden is very simple and gives maximum space to the two areas the clients wished for. A large lawn area was installed for the children to play on, with no mud patches being an artificial lawn. We also built a new large patio area for relaxing, eating and entertaining.

At the rear of the garden a raised bed was built linking in with the raised beds around the patio area, and planted up with a beautiful Acer as the focal point. Other structural shrubs, ferns and herbaceous planting add to the year-round spectacle.

A lovely warm coloured sandstone was installed for the paving, with Ipe hardwood providing the floating bench seating areas. Raised beds link all this together framing the patio area and defining the two areas of the garden.

The planting is kept simple with clipped Box balls softened by the wispy leaves and fluffy plumes of Stipa tenuissima mixed in with the daisy-like flowers of Echinacea ‘White Swan’. These plants give a natural screen to the lawn area from the seating area.

Lighting was installed, up-lighting the trees and around the seating area, bringing the garden alive at night for alfresco summer evenings.

This overgrown jungle is now a low maintenance, contemporary family urban garden.

The old garden was very overgrown and inaccessible, and with it being on two levels, this presented quite a design challenge.

For the first part of the garden, our solution was to create a proper seating area to step into from the French doors. We used new Sandstone paving for this area and built a bench with hardwood top alongside the existing bench.

A raised bed was built and painted in a neutral hue, and then filled with soft plants such as Stipa tenuissima and fragrant Lavender, acting as a wispy screen to create a specific area when seated, but through which the rest of the garden could still be viewed.

New steps were built leading down to the lower garden. We used smart gravel stones and continued the same paving as stepping stones, this became the dining area for entertaining. The new lawn area was prepared and a new artificial lawn laid for ultimate low maintenance.

The beds were planted up with a selection of flowering shrubs and perennials, which were chosen to fill the space with texture and variety of colour throughout the year. The new garden room was installed and now has a lovely view of the newly designed garden.

The clients were very pleased with the transformation of their garden which became instantly usable for entertaining, working and relaxing in.

The old garden was somewhat overgrown and the plants lacked definition, and the patio area felt disconnected from the lawn and planting area.

The new garden design now has a formal symmetrical structure, both from the hard landscaping and through the use of particular plants.

Large clipped Box balls and Agapanthus ‘White Heaven’ frame the entrance into the entertaining area of the garden. The small Box hedge surrounding the area defines it even more, before giving way to a more relaxed planting feel – plants spilling over in a natural way, with emphasis on whites, blues and purples.

Magnolia Grandiflora trees were planted in front of the new screening trellis to give more privacy and create vertical structure, providing year round interest with their large glossy leaves and beautiful flowers. These are up-lit to give the garden some drama in the evening time.

The bench at the rear of the garden is surrounded either side by Trachelospermum jasminoides giving off their delightful scent throughout summer, with another planted around the back door entrance into the garden. A fern area was created in the bed as a focal point when looking out of the dining area windows, subtly lit up for evening time.

Overall this garden has strong structure balanced by relaxed planting, a garden in which to entertain, relax and enjoy. The final pictures show the garden some months later, with the filled-out plants creating a wonderfully relaxing oasis for the owner.

Find out more about our maintenance and planting services

After the new garden design and layout was implemented, with redbrick patio area at the centre and surrounding raised beds, the planting transformation could begin.

The raised beds were fully prepared with fresh topsoil and compost. Taxus baccata (Yew) was chosen to create a strong evergreen visual framework, through the use of a large hedge along the back fence, and yew balls at the corners of the beds.

New trees were brought in to provide instant height, screening and seasonal interest. Prunus Serrula was chosen for its reddish bark and pretty blossom in spring. Amelanchier lamarckii was planted for pretty orange red autumn leaves and white spring blossom. This was balanced on the opposite bed by a beautiful Acer Palmatum ‘Bloodgood’.

Camellias and Hydrangeas were planted to bring more colour to the garden. And finally a variety of perennials were planted, including Agapanthus, Echinacea, Salvia and Erigeron, to soften the design and provide flowering colour from April to October.

Irrigation was installed for easy maintenance and to ensure the flourishing of the garden in coming years. The client was very pleased with the finished result.

The design was to incorporate a lawn area, large planting beds giving structure and impact colour throughout the year, a curved path leading to a large seating area at the rear of the garden, with raised beds for growing vegetables and herbs.

Our first task was clearance of the old garden including removing old turf and unwanted overgrown plants. We installed and painted new fencing on one side.

We rotivated the soil and enriched it for new planting. A new path was laid with a slate stone in a sweeping arc to traverse the new garden design. The new lawn was laid in a sweeping oval shape.

At the rear of the garden a new patio was laid as a new seating area and wooden raised beds were built with solid oak sleepers and planted up.

We were fortunate to have large beds to plant up and could therefore choose mature shrubs to make instant impact with the planting. We chose a beautiful Acer Bloodgood as a focal point, with Stipa and Astrantia providing texture and colour around it in the bed between the path and new lawn. The path was edged with numerous perennials to soften the edges. A colour palette of purples, blues, whites and bruised reds were used to create a harmonious balance.

We planted large loose head Olive trees around the garden,and were able to keep some of the more mature shrubs along the fence for height and structure.

The clients are very pleased and can now enjoy their garden once more.

This garden was a good size with one existing shed. We started by clearing out the garden, including unwanted and overgrown shrubs. The area was then rotivated thoroughly and levelled, and new topsoil added.

We turned the shed around, and supplied and installed trellis on one side to mask it and instead create an interesting feature with a new climber.

We marked out new flowerbeds and edged these with Everedge steel edging to give a smart definition between beds and lawn. We designed a new lawn area and returfed.

The planting scheme was to have a selection of trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials in a variety of sizes, heights and textures. The colour scheme was purple and white against a varying green backdrop, with splashes of yellow and blue.

We chose a young Betula for screening and as a focal point. We underplanted with Ferns and Japanese Anemones. We chose an Acer Bloodgood for its beautiful leaf colour, and a Magnolia for its spring blossom. The beds included plants such as Hydrangeas, Camellias, Perovskia and Rudbeckia. Evergreen climbers were used to soften the boundaries, along with climbing Roses for flower interest.

The effect was to give an instant garden that already looked well established but had in fact been created in just a few days.

This garden was a blank page – the owners had recently moved in but the basic lawn had been overtaken by thistles. We firstly cleared the ground of the spiky thistles and rotivated the soil. A new path was laid out and installed using steel edging. A gravel stabilisation system was fitted, and pink granite decorative stones used as a finish.

Pleached trees were used as screening at the rear of the garden. A large Magnolia, a Camellia and two Yew balls were used to give height and structure. Evergreen fragrant climbers were used to soften the surrounding fencing.

For the new beds, herbaceous perennials were planted en masse to give a mixture of summer colours. A large classic terracotta pot was sourced to house a new Magnolia Grandiflora. Other smaller terracotta pots were found and planted with Agapanthus, Salvia and Fuchsia to give instant colour on the existing decking.

An irrigation system was also installed to help with ongoing maintenance. An antique bench was later set at the end of the path providing a secluded seating area.

The client was very happy with the finished result and can now enjoy the summer in their new garden.