This small garden was in serious need of redesign. The owners felt that the external space to their property needed to reflect their new interior design which was calm and understated. They were looking for a contemporary garden design.

Caroline Garland, of Caroline Garland Garden Design , one of the leading garden designers of South London, was invited to come up with some simple and unfussy ideas. This was to be a contemporary garden with no frills.

Despite its small size the garden has a sunny and shady side to it – so the planting need to have some of both types of plants – see the list below.

Jurassic cream coloured limestone was used for the stone. The client did not want this replicated in coping for the raised rendered beds which were left plain.

The fencing was tongue and groove but it was painted with a wonderful dark petrol blue/slate colour to give it a smart effect along the contemporary garden design brief.

Above the fencing horizontal lathes of hard wood were installed which gives very good looking extra height.

The back wall was repointed and painted white which gives a strong clean light to the garden. The raised beds were rendered white walling.

As usual in small gardens good lighting is essential http://www.bemco.co.uk and uplighters and downlighter were installed in the raised beds.

The only plants that were saved from the original garden were the olive tree and tree fern. They were both incorporated into the design. The tree fern was moved out of its planter into the raised bed. The olive tree was also repositioned and taken out of its planter. Here below was our suggested list of plants for this lovely garden.

For the shadier areas:

Anemone x hybridus ‘Honorine Jobert’  or ‘September Charm’

Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’ 

Helleborus niger

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowqueen’

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’

Vinca minor for ground cover

Ilex crenata balls for structure

Pittosporum ‘Golf balls’ for structure

Ferns for shade:

Adiantum aleuticum

Dryopteris filix-mas

Matteuccia struthiopteris

Polystichum setiferum

Sunny – perennials and shrubs

Agapanthus

Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Jewel’

Gaura lindheimeri ‘Ballerina’

Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ or ‘Chocolate Ruffles’

Libertia Formosa

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Hebe ‘Silver Queen’

Lavandula (lavender) x intermedia ‘Grosso’ alba

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’

Grasses

Carex ‘Everest’

Hakonechloa macra

Feature roses:

Rosa ‘William Shakespeare’

Rosa ‘Felicia’  

Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’

Rosa ‘Ballerina’

Climber:

Trachelospermum jasminoides (fence cover)