A Georgian terrace garden
A smart courtyard garden for a terraced Georgian house
Budget: £14,000
The owners of this terraced late-Georgian house required a low-maintenance garden with sufficient space to dine, easy access to the rear gate for utility purposes and small trees to give height and definition to the space.
The hard landscaping consists of riven sandstone slabs with brick inlay and cobble detailing. Reflecting the materials elsewhere on site, these are used to both accent the main axial view from the dining room at the rear of the house and to emphasise the width of the garden by protruding into the planting beds on either side of the usefully wide path. Large contemporary planters contain clipped box domes to draw the eye in a zig-zag path through the space, further accentuating the width of what could seem a narrow space. A high level of finish gives the garden a tailored feel appropriate to the urban setting.
The terrace area is given a sense of enclosure by the use of an overhead beam structure tied back to the house, and two ornamental rowan trees, Sorbus cashmeriana, arranged diagonally across the garden give long season interest as well as helping to define the overhead plane.
The planting uses a mix of evergreen and deciduous perennials with contrasting form and colour. Planted in blocks linked by bulb planting for spring and early summer interest, the soft landscaping brings a contemporary formality to the garden, which will evolve as the plants begin to intermingle where they meet.
