Award-winning garden designer Matt Keightley transformed the small, narrow space behind his 1930s London home into a lush, leafy glade that all the family can enjoy
WORDS ZIA ALLAWAY PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
When designer Matt Keightley and his wife Kate moved into their 1930s house in London three years ago, the narrow garden offered exactly what they were looking for. With a large lawn and a few plants held hostage in tiny beds next to the boundaries, it provided the blank canvas Matt needed to create his dream family garden. “I had a vision of a tree-lined glade that would give my girls space to explore, with room for a kitchen and seating area where Kate and I could relax and entertain.”
The first step was to build an extension on to the back of the house. “We designed it so that as you walk into the kitchen, all the attention is focused on the garden, drawing you to venture outside or, on a cold winter’s day, enjoy it from indoors,” says Matt.
Having mapped out the design in his head, rather than drawing a formal plan, Matt and his brother simply marked it up in situ with landscape paint. “I created a journey through the garden, with trees and plants blurring the boundaries and a series of stepping stones and terraces that shift the focus from one side to the other, rather than revealing everything at once.
“Since we have beautiful parks nearby, there was no need for a lawn. Instead, I’ve used a bold planting palette that provides texture, colour and movement throughout the year.” Three multi-stemmed Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’ steal the show, their sculptural branches offering interest in winter, before acid-lime foliage unfurls on red stems in spring. The leaves then turn green and finally explode in an inferno of bright yellow in autumn. Yew topiaries also anchor the scheme, while a frill of foliage plants, including male ferns, sedges and grasses, create a textured backdrop to the spring bulbs and summer-flowering perennials that deliver temporary flashes of colour. The organic shapes and muted colours of the polished concrete stepping stones and clay paver terraces add to the naturalistic effect.
Veils of foliage and flowers also help to disguise the spacious kitchen and seating area, creating an element of surprise when it’s finally revealed at the en
