Chic Town Garden
The change to this small city garden in the centre of Kentish Town, London, couldn't have been bigger. Old tired paving, crumbling fences covered in ivy and a rotting deck were removed, before new retaining walls, steps and a large U-shaped storage bench were constructed.
The old fence was replaced with a Western Red Cedar slatted screen and we designed a resin based Millboard limed oak decking to create multiple levels.
The original steps up from the house were narrow and steep so we designed wide, deep decking steps with a central platform to make the journey to the main area of garden less dangerous. Artificial lawn and a simple palette of plants were used to give the clients the easy to care for garden they'd asked for. Finally, powder coated metal planters were designed into the lower steps to provide a place for climbing plants.
"We enlisted Philip's help at the recommendation of our architects and we could not be happier. Our small back garden was charming but we had become increasingly frustrated with how we had outside space but we were not able to utilise the space in a meaningful way. Particularly now that we are parents to an energetic toddler.
We were really impressed with how Philip produced and presented various proposals to us. At no point did we feel overwhelmed with options and he was able to visualise a garden we had no idea was possible given the space. Once the design was agreed we started to become quite nervous about the project as it involved a complete redesign of the back and dragging huge amounts of soil, flag stones and plants (including trees!) through the ground floor of our home as there is no other access point to the rear garden.
Read Dan and Karina's full review
The garden before
Despite having a few nice plants, this garden was overgrown, cramped and dangerous for our clients young child. Old Yorkstone paving had been partly covered with wooden decking that was rotten and falling apart. Access to the garden was via a narrow and steep set of crumbling steps.
