The owner of a newly renovated house wanted a smart ‘adult’ garden for parties, with a focus on planting, vegetable beds and a greenhouse, but also needed a big lawn for ball games with the grandchildren.  

A limited planting palette of greens, bronzes, whites and clarets wrap a large, golden rectangle of lawn. Three pairs of Betula albosinensis ‘Fascination’, underplanted with clusters of fluffy, mint green balls of Pittosporum are contrasted with grasses, perennials and small, bronze Phormiums.  The bronzes are echoed with corten steel troughs set into the terrace and hedging, planted with bronze branched, weeping Salix caprea ‘Kilmarnock’.  The pale, sage green glasshouse is set to the side and handy for raised beds, which yield abundant, fresh vegetables for healthy dining.  A large, split level terrace paved with reconstituted Portland stone, spans the basement below and provides plenty of space for dining and lounging in the sun.  

Photographs by Matthew Gilbert