Two contrasting front gardens designed over the past couple of years. Both small spaces. At a time when driveways dominate and front gardens are being gobbled up, it’s good to redress the balance and provide a little oasis, however small.
The first garden
Situated on a narrow road with limited parking, space for two cars had previously been created with the addition of a block paved area. This left a lawn, a few random shrubs and a couple of trees. Hauling the lawnmower over the high kerb to mow a small patch of grass was irritating and the owners wanted a low maintenance solution without loosing any more greenery. The area was sunny from the afternoon into the evening.
My clients liked the box balls they’d seen in other gardens, but I’m wary of using them with box blight being so common nowadays. I also thought we could do something more unusual, but still using the evergreen, clipped rounded look they liked.
The two trees were to stay – a laburnum and an autumn flowering cherry, but everything else came out. It was January 2017 and we laid down membrane to allow the owners to paint the fence when the weather allowed without creating a mud bath. In March we prepared the soil and followed on with the planting.
The plants
- Hebe rakiensis
- Hebe “Green Globe’
- Pittosporum tobira ‘Nana’
- Pinus mugo ‘Pumilio’
- Taxus baccata (as topiary balls)
- Rhododendron impeditum ‘Ramapo’
- Photina fraseri ‘Pink Marble’ (2 x small standard specimens)
- Leptospermum scoparium ‘Martini’ ( New Zealand Tea Tree)
- Armeria maritima (Thrift)
- Arenaria montana
- Leptinella potentillina
- Thyme
- Libertia grandiflora
- Allium aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’ and ‘Mount Everest’
- Decorative moss mounds
Leptospermum scoparium ‘Martini’ (New Zealand Tea Tree)
The Libertia added spiky shapes to the area and the New Zealand tea tree worked well against the grey fence colour. The whole area was finished off with a gravel mulch with larger cobbles arranged to provide contrast. Smaller grit was used round the necks of plants such as the thyme, but generally the gravel was chunky enough to deter the neighbourhood cats. It works!
The second garden
This is made up of raised sleeper beds that provide a boundary between the pavement and the property. Previously, the area was open to the street and laid with depressing slate chippings. The new raised beds change height and depth and a screen to one side masks the bin storage area. A mix of new indian stone paving and gravel completed the hard landscaping.
This south facing garden needed plants that could tough it out in dry conditions, but I also knew that the owner would be good at watering and deadheading on a regular basis. Some height was needed and a small standard Prunus incisa ‘Kojo no Mai’ and Prunus ‘Snow Showers’ make up each end, providing spring blossom and autumn colour.
Other plants
- Scabious ‘Kudos Pink’
- Salvia ‘Caradonna’
- Erigeron karvinskianus
- Briza media
- Euphorbia myrsinites
- Rhodanthemum ‘Casablanca’
- Lavender ‘Hidcote’
- Cistus salvifolius ‘May Snow’
- Osteospermum jucundum
- Prostanthera cuneata (alpine mint bush)
- Pulsatilla vulgaris Heiler hybrid (Pasque Flower)
- Rosemarianus prostrata
This garden was due to be planted in June 2018, but the hot summer meant that it was delayed until early September. We finished it off in November with bulb planting and the addition of a couple of box balls either side of the entrance path. I decided to risk it as they added the finishing touch. This summer the garden is being noticed by passers by as it is a mass of flowers. An oasis has sprung up where once there was desert.
