“green is a colour too!”

Sarah and Michael Evans’ tiny plot has been revamped with a SIMPLE PALETTE and tactile planting

GARDEN makeover

BEFORE

Osmanthus burkwoodi

Kast White porcelain tiles, from £55.20m² mandarinstone.com

Nandina domestica ‘Magical Lemon and Lime’

Hemmed in and without any features past a tired patch of artificial grass, Sarah and Michael Evans’ tiny garden in London was ready for a radical transformation. Measuring just 5.7m x 6.3m, this compact outside space had to cater for a family of five complete with dog, and the couple were keen to put every centimetre to good use. Expert help was essential, and local garden designer Lilly-Joan Richardson (lillyjoanrichardson.com) and her passion for blending practical with visually pleasing was the obvious choice. “Before we designed and built the garden, there was nothing really there!” Lilly-Joan explains.

“The space was hardly used and felt pretty depressing.” But the owners were expecting a lot from their outside space. “The couple wanted a space where they could relax, cook outside and entertain friends as well as store their bikes,” she adds.

It was important to strike a careful balance between form and function – on display at all times from the kitchen, the new-look garden had to provide year-round colour and interest, day and night. And crucially, the reworked space had to be low on upkeep, in keeping with their busy lives.

“As the garden is particularly small and highly visible, the whole design had to be well thought through to create a sense of elegance, unity and to make it feel bigger,” says Lilly-Joan.

THOUGHTFUL DESIGN

With such a compact footprint and the only access being through the house, careful planning was essential. And that wasn’t the only restriction. With a basement underneath the outside space, and a tanking membrane in place to keep it watertight, all the planting had to be in planters. “And I had to work with the existing raised bed at the far end of the garden as the tanking runs along the front of it,” adds Lilly-Joan.

The high mismatched walls were a further complication. With a mix of exposed brick, render and timber-clad boundaries, it was crucial to unify the space, but also to introduce layers of interest to distract