Small contemporary garden in Wandsworth

This was a typical small fairly overgrown garden.  And considering it was small it had a mass of heavy large mature shrubs in it all which had become overgrown and ‘woody’.  It was time for a change so with a very simple garden design we created an immediate sense of space, clean lines and good planting.  The area by the cantilevered benches now has a table and sits 8 people easily whereas before they were cramped round a smaller area by the house.  We chose the top LHS of the garden for the raised bed and benches as this is where the garden catches the afternoon and evening sun.  Although the owners did not want to spend a huge amount of money we managed to persuade them that a good sawn limestone was the only way forward..this small amount has totally transformed the garden, but in order to cut costs for them we painted their original fencing black to ‘sharpen’ it up and then we put good new horizontal trellising above and painted in the same black wood preservative.  The benches are beautiful pieces of Cedar wood (again a must) which will stand them in good stead as they will not warp or discolour.  The planting was buxus balls, lavenders, geraniums, alliums, nepetas, lavenders and anemones and two small olive trees, plus climbers for the fencing.