Garden Tour: A City Front Garden With a Wild, Rural Feel
This gorgeous green space at the front of a Georgian cottage in London has become a secret urban oasis
Believe it or not, this rural-looking front garden is in the middle of London’s East End. Away from the area’s bustle and busy roads, there’s a row of Georgian workers’ cottages tucked away, down what feels like a leafy country lane. Fences are low and the gardens all benefit from borrowed greenery – either from each other or from the creepers covering the high wall opposite.
“They wanted to retain a level of wildness and some of the existing trees and to emphasise the path,” Paul Duffy, designer at GRDN, says, recalling the owners’ fairly loose brief.
Paul built on what was there, layering grasses and cottagey flowers. “The sense of arrival for the owners when they come home is amazing now,” he says. Needless to say, they are delighted with the transformation.
“They wanted to retain a level of wildness and some of the existing trees and to emphasise the path,” Paul Duffy, designer at GRDN, says, recalling the owners’ fairly loose brief.
Paul built on what was there, layering grasses and cottagey flowers. “The sense of arrival for the owners when they come home is amazing now,” he says. Needless to say, they are delighted with the transformation.
Photographed a year on from the previous shot, the garden is gorgeously lush.
Anemanthele lessoniana is just one of several grasses in the scheme, all of which go a long way towards creating the garden’s naturalistic feel. In the mix here are also Agapanthus, lavender, Tiarella and Acanthus mollis. In the foreground, you can see an inky-coloured Sambucus nigra shrub.
This picture was taken soon after planting when everything was fairly small…
Find a local garden designer on Houzz today.
This picture was taken soon after planting when everything was fairly small…
Find a local garden designer on Houzz today.
This shows how the same part of the garden looked a year later.
Paul also planted salvias and geraniums amid the grasses, seen here. The red-flowered plant is a Persicaria.
More: What’s Your Dream Garden Style?
More: What’s Your Dream Garden Style?
The plan for the garden shows it with an imagined bench in situ.
The herringbone path goes directly from the gate to the front door, and then turns left across the front of the house.
The rest of the paving is laid in a stack bond formation and cuts the beds into four main sections. “The warm textures work really well with the red-flowering Persicaria [seen here],” Paul says.
“The paving also ties in with the cottage garden aesthetic,” he continues. “It’s laid in different styles – the path is in herringbone to define it and its function, and to add interest.”
Bexhill clay pavers, London Stone.
“The paving also ties in with the cottage garden aesthetic,” he continues. “It’s laid in different styles – the path is in herringbone to define it and its function, and to add interest.”
Bexhill clay pavers, London Stone.
A deciduous Virginia creeper on the wall opposite the fence makes for a lush borrowed backdrop in warmer months. “It’s lovely in the autumn, too, as it turns red,” Paul says.
Paul created a metal edge between the beds and path to manage a change in level. This meant the trees could be retained and he could work with the existing levels when redesigning the space.
To allow the owners to make the most of the peaceful garden, which is bigger than their back garden, Paul created space for a bench on the pavers, should the owners want to install one to sit and enjoy their wild corner of the city.
More than a year after planting, the garden is thriving and also makes for a glorious green view from the house.
Tell us…
Which ideas from this beautiful front garden would you try in your own green space? Let us know in the Comments.
Tell us…
Which ideas from this beautiful front garden would you try in your own green space? Let us know in the Comments.
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Who lives here? A young couple, now expecting their first child
Location Bethnal Green, east London
Property A Georgian worker’s cottage
Garden dimensions 7.4m x 4.4m
Designers Paul Duffy and Peter Robinson of GRDN
Project year August 2021
Photos by Peter Robinson
“The beauty of this front garden is the privacy,” Paul says. “You could sit out here if you felt like it. There’s no road, just a quiet alleyway – and, especially with the low picket fence, it feels very rural and cottagey.”
In tune with the context, the planting style, which includes an existing mature apple tree, has an ‘English country garden’ feel. “It’s very naturalistic; you wouldn’t want anything too formal here,” Paul says.