Wendy Stokes | Garden Design | Small Unexpected Garden

PROFILE

PROJECT PORTFOLIO

SERENE GARDEN

CONTEMPORARY FRONT GARDEN

SENSORY FAMILY
GARDEN

L-SHAPED COURTYARD

GARDEN OF
SHAPES

SMALL UNEXPECTED GARDEN
Raynes Park, London SW20

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before	plans	after	after	after

"I'm delighted with the garden. Working with you on the project was a real pleasure and I greatly appreciated the patience and care you took in understanding what I was looking for and creating a design solution that so perfectly matched my brief. The whole process was managed smoothly from the first visit through to the garden's completion. I love looking at it and being in it and can't wait for spring and summer to see the planting in its full glory."

The brief was to create something quirky and unusual in a tiny space leftover after a deck had been built in the other half of the garden. The garden is on view from the sitting room, and needed a to be visually strong with some kind of focal point. The deck was raised to the height of the house and created a few privacy issues, so there was an additional need to screen off this part of the garden, which was done with a variety of black, yellow and green grove bamboos in large containers.

Because the deck is very straight and angular, the decision was made to do something soft and flowing with curves and textures, and even though it is a tiny space to encourage you to walk around. It was deliberately meant to have a very different feel from the deck; to be unexpected and to make visitors feel surprised. The bullrush sculpture was chosen as the focal point, and the planting of irises and arum lilies nearby was to evoke a feeling of water, even though there is none. The planting, including a Japanese Acer; white peony-shaped Camellia; dusky pink foxgloves, grasses; and groundcover white bergenias, pink and white lamiums and black lilyturf, will eventually fill out and increase the feeling of being both private and unexpected.