Small London gardens simply improved

Here are some tiny London gardens that have been quickly improved and enhanced by simple use of good paving, raised beds, painted fencing, horizontal trellising.  As you can see they are only just finished so in most cases have not even been planted. See the before and after shots in each case: Streatham garden design,

Cobbles in a Clapham garden – how to grout the cobbles!! Who’d be a builder?!

How to grout the cobbles! This is a totally back breaking job even for the most energetic, strong, resilient builder.  Bending over, scraping down in minute detail, brushing out old detritus, adding in new, then forcing into spaces with small tool and then brushing over – then repeating the excercise!  I have to take my

Choose a good landscape contractor

I am a garden designer and more to the point I am a very lucky garden designer as I am married to a  very good landscape contractor, Peter Garland of Townscapes Landscape contractors https://www.carolinegarland.com/ Why is this particularly lucky? 10 good reasons: It doesn’t matter how clever and detailed your garden design is, if you

How wrong can a London garden designer be? My Balham client knew best!

Cladding How wrong can a designer be?! My Balham client knew best! The original retaining wall in this sloping garden was nearer to the house (the owners having built out into the garden for a big kitchen extension) and so to create a patio area we had to push back the garden quite considerably behind

Burntwood Lane, Wandsworth – work very much in progress

This garden is now complete, see the finished garden here » It’s amazing how it’s possible to make a small difficult shaped area into a delightful entertaining space! We’re working on this at the moment. What was a small triangular “yard” behind a new extension has now been transformed (unfinished) into a welcoming, seemingly larger,

Clapham garden, work in progress. My astroturf garden! Designed by Caroline Garland

This garden is now complete, see the finished garden here » This was the state of the garden as we found it. It was a tiny garden at the back of a beautiful new development.  The fence to the left was sitting on a wall and on the other side was the public pavement.  The