TUFNELL PARK
GRAVEL GARDEN
Project Brief:
Create a low maintenance gravel-style dry garden for a south facing terrace property. Incorporate a new front garden wall, hard standing to work on a push-bike, a screen for the large bike store, and a bin storage area.
This design seeks to provide practical solutions to daily living whilst also creating a pretty entrance to this handsome house. This client was very keen to reuse materials where possible, and this excited us very much! The existing sandstone paving was recycled and up-cycled throughout, sawn into narrow plank style paving and re-laid in staggered pattern to allow functional use without taking up too much space.
A bespoke timber bike and bin cover was designed to maximise the functionality of this small space whilst masking the not-so-pretty but necessary lockable bike store. To the side the bin and recycling boxes are stored in a separate compartment hidden from view, and the horizontal timber battens, stained black, add a smart, geometric appearance. Over time asiatic jasmine will grow through to soften the structure.
Fronting the property is a new garden wall, built with reclaimed red imperial bricks to match the house.
The stone coping was designed and bespoke-cast to mirror the stone coping on an old victorian garden wall nearby.
A Ceanothus tree, not too big but not too small, frames the view. It is exceptionally floriferous and in late spring and early summer is the friend of many many bees.
All plants have been selected to flower at key times of the year, but the daily focus is to offer a range of foliage textures and shapes that deliver a tapestry at a lower level.
Narrow and columnar species such as Miscanthus grass and Verbena bonariensis offer height without taking up too much space. At the other end of the scale creeping ground cover has been used in the gaps between the plank paving. A ground cover of Thyme and white flowering Cerastium should withstand light foot traffic and bike wheels.
Scattered about are seeds of orange Californian poppy a total wild card designed to pop up where it whims.