Garden design for a very small space is always interesting and this one didn’t disappoint! Leading garden designers, Caroline Garland garden design, introduced a lovely garden for their clients in Battersea. Caroline benefits from having a husband who is a landscape contractor – between them they make an excellent team.

The garden was heavily overgrown and rather messy with bad fencing which was completely covered by ivy and other climbing plants. The remit was to make the garden a welcoming space in which to entertain but to have a bit of an eclectic slant. It was not to look brand new and yet it was to be brand new!

The brick walling was half whitewashed and half left in its original state on purpose. The eventual effect looked ‘antiqued’ which softened the hard lines of a contemporary garden design.

We used Bert and May tiles which are small and intricate to lay so it is imperative to have good contractors to do this job. We used Townscapes Landscape Contractors who work with Caroline Garland Garden Designers. The tiles were grouted with Mapei Jasmine grout. Usually it is easy to use an uncoloured grout but for this small garden this level of detail was important.

We built raised beds and coped the walling with porcelain tiles . We rendered the walls and painted them with white Sandtex.

The fencing was painted black mixed with green and a clay colour which also gave an antiqued effect.

Lighting was essential in this garden so we installed uplighters around the garden to give a soft ambient look.

The planting was lush and tropical but equally shade loving. We included the following plants: Dicentra, hellebores, hostas, pachysandras, crocosimas, cynara cardunculus (thistle-like), strelitzia nicolai (birds of paradise), phyllostachys nigra (black bamboo), trachycarpus fortunei, dicksonia antartica (tree fern) , musa basso (banana tree), cycas revoluta, dryopteris affines (fern), polystichum polyblepharum (fern) , fatsia polycarpa, trachelospermum jasminoides (jasmine climber) and olea euorpaeas (olive trees of course!)

We tailor-made a wooden bench which we painted with a grey garden paint shade.

Our message is ’employ a good garden designer and you’ll never regret it!’