In this Islington garden, designer Declan Buckley has used lush, jungle-style planting to remind his clients of their childhoods in Kerala
WORDS NATASHA GOODFELLOW PHOTOGRAPHS RACHEL WARNE
Sometimes, things just fall into place. That was certainly the case in this project, where the clients, introduced to garden designer Declan Buckley by their architect, happened to have bought a house just across the road from Declan’s home. They got in touch, intending to visit another of Declan’s projects, but when that fell through, they met at Declan’s house instead and the rest, as they say, is history. “My garden is like the temperate house at Kew, but without a roof,” says Declan. “It’s rather overgrown now but they loved the lushness of it, and when they realised that they could grow hardy versions of bananas that they were familiar with from growing up in Kerala, they were super excited.”
The clients’ new garden, when Declan first saw it, was nothing more than a patch of grass backing on to a line of Cupressocyparis x leylandii in the neighbouring plot – in this case a welcome feature, since the house refurbishment featured a lot of glazing and the trees afforded some privacy. The extensive use of glass also means that the garden is the first thing you see when entering the house, so Declan has layered his planting from the ground up, creating a lush, dense understorey and using taller plants for scale and seclusion. Most are evergreen to ensure year-round interest, all are hardy for minimal maintenance, and together they conjure that Rousseau-esque feel Declan loves. “For a low-maintenance garden, it’s about as exotic looking as you can get in the UK,” he says.
Texture, rather than colour, is the star here, with contrasts of foliage and scale used to great effect. Tiny, smooth-leaved Soleirolia soleirolii is used as an edging plant, scrambling out across the porcelain steps and pebble pathway and softening the underlying geometry. At the other end of the scale are the huge, palmate leaves of Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’, repeat planted throughout the space, and a fast-growing Paulownia tree, positioned so that its lilac flowers in spring shine out against the leylandii.
Elsewhere, the chocolatey hue of feathery Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’ is echoed in the bespoke steel water feature and in the quite extraordinary plant that is Pseudopanax crassifolius – a tall, almost leafless trunk with slender
