Garden Design - Crouch End, London N8
Entering the garden via the extension, the user will travel across two deep wide steps to join the main section of the space. Climbers will be planted to conceal the existing fence on the left hand side, with a bespoke screen (approximately 6 metres long), comprising tall timber posts joined with stainless steel tension wire and decorated with small panels of coloured perspex, will be erected above the top of the fence to break up the view of the buildings to the left.
Flooring throughout the space will be in rectangular dark slate tiles laid in a stretcher bond pattern to match the interior of the house. The main section of the garden will benefit from a variety of bespoke features designed to make maximum use of the space. A major focus of the garden will take the form of a water feature consisting of a sunken rill bisecting the space. Deep and wide enough to allow the client to add fish at a later date, this rill will be topped with removable walk-over grating and fed from the left side by a stainless steel water blade installed into the front of a decorative tower constructed from yellow stock brick, railway sleepers, coloured perspex and slate. Seating in the garden will be provided by two large ‘sofas’ constructed from chunky railway sleepers, positioned to face each other across the water feature rill. The sofas will be complemented by a matching coffee-style table straddling the rill between them. Large (2 metre clear stem) cordylines planted in the ground at either end of each sofa, will frame the seating to give the area a sense of privacy and seclusion.
A bespoke barbecue/fireplace will be constructed to the right of the seating area, at the opposite end of the rill to the stainless sleet blade. Constructed from yellow stock brick and utilising the existing stone lintel, this barbeque will feature two separate cooking areas with space between for a firepit.
The main area of the garden is screened from the remainder of the space by a tall, wide ‘shelving unit’ screen. Constructed from railway sleepers, this structure will feature individual alcoves which will be filled with a variety of decorative materials and ornamentation. Directly in front of this will be a flush level herb bed.
Beyond the shelving unit screen will be the child-friendly section of the space. This will comprise a rectangular section of artificial lawn edged by a slate paved pathway, with the playhouse nestled within the centre of a planting bed at the end of the garden.
Planting in the second section of the garden will include stepover fruit trees down either side, back planted by climbers. In addition, an Acer and a Mimosa will be planted in the bed around the children’s playhouse. The pathway around the lawn will offer the client’s opportunity to place planted pots at a later date if required.