This small city garden in Utrecht is now buzzing with life thanks to a transformation by designer Carolien Barkman
WORDS NATASHA GOODFELLOW PHOTOGRAPHS MAAYKE DE RIDDER
Toads, water snails and a shrew. None of these creatures – all of which have now made their home in this garden just a short walk from the centre of Utrecht – would previously have given it a second glance. “It was just awful,” says the owner. “Just a lot of paving, some sad grass and no plants. The kids liked it because they could play ball, but once they were old enough to play out on the street, we decided to make something beautiful instead.”
Having been impressed by images of Carolien Barkman’s work in a book on small garden design, they set up a meeting and gave her the brief: a lush, wildlife-friendly garden with lots of colour, room to grow vegetables and, crucially, space for three barbecues. “They also wanted space to sit under a tree, somewhere to eat and a pond,” remembers Carolien. “It’s not a big plot, so the challenge was how to fit this all in, while still creating a beautiful garden where the family could relax.”
Carolien has done this by zoning the garden into three different areas – the productive garden to the front; the barbecue terrace to the side and the ornamental garden, which incorporates three distinct seating areas, to the rear. Tying them all together is a limited palette consisting almost entirely of bricks in various forms, to match the architecture of the house.
Broken bricks, a recycled material that allows more water to permeate the ground, have been used for the meandering pathways, while the terraces have been made with square brick pavers of the same colours. Standard bricks have been used for the central pond and the raised beds Carolien built to enhance the feeling of seclusion and intimacy in the garden.
While the front and side gardens are relatively restrained with a focus on foliage plants, it is in the rear garden where Carolien has really focused on the colour element of the brief. “The back garden is accessed through a little wooden door, almost like a secret garden, and I wanted to emphasise that contrast and feeling of surprise as you enter,” she says.
