Back to nature

Dappled sunlight, fragrant flowers, a warm breeze - it's time to refresh our outdoor spaces

- KATE BURNETT

LIGHT AND SPACE

Fulfilling her client's brief- 'a beautiful "green" picture that would be the constant visual backdrop to the kitchen/dining room' - proved a big ask for landscape design studio Jane Brockbank Gardens. “It was a challenge,' says Jane, about the space at the rear of a Victorian terrace in London. Jane's aim was to make the space full of shimmery light and texture' so she dug out the garden to the new basement level including underpinning all the walls, placing planting in beds at lower levels. 'It was also a very constrained site - we needed to make it feel lighter and bigger,' says Jane. 'Much thought was given to the walls - they are very tall so we used many contrasting tall shrubs and climbers to counteract this.

SHADY SOLUTIONS

Landscape designer Emily Erlam created her garden from a long narrow space behind a Victorian house in London. Its setting means it is naturally fairly shady. A tall Victorian wall on the back elevation makes it feel private and enclosed; Emily says, adding that 'now I have tall structures in there it creates a greater contrast between light and shade. We created raised terraces as you go up the garden to maximise our opportunity to capture sun and, seen from the basement, these give a feeling of a cascade of planting. Emily embraces its shadiness, calling it a 'garden of evolution, and continues to develop the planting. 'Specific areas require different treatments to make the most of sunny spots and special spaces,' she adds.

"TALL GRASSES CAN ACT AS A SCREEN FOR BOTH PRIVACY AND PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS"

SCOTT MADDUX, creative director, Maddux Creative