Canonbury Garden
The clients in Canonbury were converting their garage and needed a garden designer to collaborate with their architect on dealing with the immediate space around it. They wanted a garden that was in keeping with the Canonbury conservation area but also had a contemporary edge to it, whilst accommodating the needs of a family. It was important for them to have a pond for the children (over 12 years), a vegetable patch and a compost area.
It was agreed that the architect would deal with the major ground works excavation and the 1.5 m high retaining wall around the lower patio area immediately outside the ground floor kitchen doors, I would take over from there. The overall design takes its strong geometric layout from the access point of the lower terrace. Long, wide steps 2m x 1m, and constructed from single piece slate slabs, lead you up to the garden. Straight ahead through the Iroko Pergola covered in Jasmine, takes you to the Vegetable raised bed and compost bin, whereas the main axis to the left draws you by the strong horizontal rows of slate bedded into the grass, to the pond and upper patio. This area is further defined by an edging of slate and chamomile, and diagonal rows of slate.
The client was committed to replacing the boundary walls with reclaimed brick up to 1.2m and then we planted pleached hornbeams above this for further screening. Clipped box edging frames the herbaceous borders and deters errant footballs. I advised on wildflower planting for the garage roof, which was a condition of the Canonbury Conservation Area Consent, the installation of which was subcontracted out. The clients have since added their own contemporary furniture to the garden that introduces a fun element and stresses the importance of family and the colourful energy that this brings to a garden.
