Tiny garden before we started

This is a very small narrow garden which is seen from the owners’ flat above and is reached by a narrow passage running along side the house. At the back of the garden is a church with pretty windows.  The owners wanted a light, contemporary and easy to maintain garden.   I thought if you can have a capsule wardrobe why not have a capsule garden?!  I think you could pop this garden in almost anywhere, like sort of shoebox or dolls’ house garden.  We juxtaposed paving with decking and put in staggered raised beds to give some interest but specifically to widen the effect of the garden.  At the back there will be a table and therefore we added built in seating.  The wood is evidently cedar which will tone down in due course but is a wonderful red colour at the moment, and the paving is a light cream limestone which brings out the cedar tones of the wood.  We painted their original fencing with Cuprinol Garden Shades – Natural Stone.  The planting is pittosporum tobiras and ilex crenata balls to give structure with a pittosporum ‘Emerald Dome’ shrub at the back RHS which will also be topiaried in due course.  The small standard tree is an olive and the rest of the planting is lavenders, heucheras, euphorbias, sedums and liriopes.

Caroline Garland’s ‘capsule’ garden