Garden Design - Stoke Newington, London N16
The Solution
The design creates a simple and elegant space, suitable for both formal and informal dining and entertaining.
The space will be framed on three sides by 70cm high raised beds with white rendered retaining walls to offset the planting. Directly in front of these raised beds will be a second bed running flush with the ground. This flush bed will also run around the entire boundary of the garden and, in conjunction with the raised beds, will provide split level planting for added interest in the space.
The flooring will comprise a combination of two varieties of slate tiles in different colours and cuts. A border of sliced natural slate tiles will enclose two courses of Marshalls burnt copper slate, with natural crazy paved natural slate laid in the centre.
The back middle of the main area of the space will give pride of place to a beautiful Etruscan verdigris water feature, comprising two wall mounted intertwined fish water spouts which pour into a large, shell-shaped bowl. This in turn will overflow into a shallow butyl-lined pool dressed with cobbles, to create an attractive feature which will be the main focal point for the garden.
The area running down the side of the house will feature paving in the same vein as the garden proper. Low raised beds will be built directly below the window, and also roughly halfway down the sideway. Between the two beds will be a bench seat constructed from a rendered block wall will a decking top. This area will also benefit from a wooden pergola constructed from treated timber, upon which evergreen 'Clematis Armandii' and a 'Vitis Brant' vine will be trained to create a gentle introduction to the main area of the space.
The planting will be bold and architectural, concentrating mainly on big leafy greens and soft ferns, and will display a selection of textures and shades of green. Several evergreen shrubs will hold interest during the winter months, while grasses and hostas will steal the show throughout the summer.
Lighting will be soft and dramatic with 12 white eyelids inserted into the raised beds to flood the flush beds and flooring below in an elegant and aesthetically pleasing manner. Low-voltage spotlights in the raised beds will light-up the foliage at night to its best advantage, while a waterproof spot in the sunken pond of the water feature will ensure illumination that dances across the garden when the sun goes down. Finally, up/down lighters positioned on the pergola will provide light to the sideway and create a dramatic and intriguing entrance into the garden.
To complete the renovation of the space, the existing fence will be stained dark brown and the outside the existing back door will be painted white.