It’s true; designing your own garden is bloody hard.

I am of course a tricky client: changing the brief, changing the budget, changing my mind. And when it comes to the best bit - the gardening - I have nowhere near enough time to execute my plans.

But two and a half years into living in our house I can see we are at a tipping point; and I want to expand my options, put some extra energy and investment into the garden and bring my ides to life (before I change my mind again).

And so I’ve decided to follow my own advice and hire a knowledgable and forward-thinking gardener who shares my principles. Working in tandem with someone else and treating my own garden as an important project will make me more organised, and in turn allow me more creative freedom. This collaboration will speed up the gap between design and implementation, and pave the way for new conversations and more ideas to be explored. I look forward to telling you how things unfold.

This month in the newsletter, I take you behind the scenes in our Herne Hill project and walk you through the brief. Sharing the inspiration and the design evolution of this charming, contemporary and welcoming family garden. Expect sun, splendour and southern Californian style.

Meanwhile back in rural Wiltshire, colour is retuning to the garden with force. Happy days.

And if you make it to the very end, an extract from a spring poem waits for you; some inspiration for those gardenin

See you in April!

Tabi x

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

As soon as you cross the threshold into this South London house you see the garden; thanks to the view being opened up when new windows were placed in the extension. I always obsess over the views from the house and this is no exception - from the dark depths of winter to the height of summer the glass frames are a portal into the living world.

We were introduced to the clients - a creative couple with young children - by interior designer Studio George, who worked her magic on the interiors. George had already made great progress inside and work was beginning on the ground floor when we first visited. George had dubbed the project ‘The Deep South’ in homage not only to being the wrong side of the river (jk) but also to the client who had family roots in the southern states

For inspiration we studied a glorious mix of perennial meadows, prairie planting and the rustic outdoor style of 70s California. The garden embraces cooking, entertaining and fun. At one point a garden room with a wrap around porch was on the cards.

The design includes deep, stepped beds of naturalistic planting which joyfully were more important than lawn to my clients. Although there is still plenty of space for play - and the garden is comfortable enough in its own skin that scattered toys only add to its charm.

The dusty pink wall forms part of the outdoor kitchen and dining area; a rustic and deliberately modest space with crazy paving on the floors and the worktops. The garden gets plenty of sun, so we deployed a palette of silvery greens in the form of Salvia rosmarinus, balotta pseudodictamnus and eucalyptus that will be trained into a hedge. This focus on drought tolerant species means it requires little irrigation and will hopefully thrive in London’s increasingly hot, dry climate.

IN MY OWN GARDEN…

In spring-time, there are daffodils,

And primroses on little hills,

And high within my apple-tree

A blackbird comes and sings to me;
On the black branch he sits and sings

Of birds and nests and eggs and things.

I can’t remember as I hear

That old grey London lies so near.

• extract from ‘A House in Hampstead’ by Anna Wickham