A small west London garden with a clever planting palette
'The smaller the garden, the more important it is to curate its contents,' says Sheila Jack, a designer who knows a thing or two about chic simplicity. For more than a decade, she has been producing miniature horticultural gems for an urban – and urbane – clientele who want to make the most of every bit of outdoor space at their disposal.
Australian expats James and Olivia Markham had just completed an extensive renovation of their west London house when they came across Sheila’s portfolio. ‘We put so much effort into the house, but the garden looked like a prison yard and we wanted them to complement each other,’ says James. That meant reflecting curved elements in the interior, while making space for James’ beloved barbecue and as much of an Aussie outdoor lifestyle vibe as the British weather would allow.
Given that the whole rear garden measures just 5.5 metres by 8 metres, that brief could have been daunting, but Sheila was more struck by the possibilities than the limitations. ‘They have no neighbours at the bottom of the garden, so there was a borrowed landscape of other people’s trees and a surprising sense of space,’ she explains. ‘I began by assessing which elements we could keep. The existing wooden fence was perfectly all right and there was a mature pittosporum, which we shaped into a topiarised cylinder, but there was nothing much else there apart from an enormous trampoline belonging to James and Olivia’s daughters.’
Mindful of that curving interior motif and the little girls’ hope of one day being reunited with their circular trampoline, Sheila shaped generous beds to round out three of the four corners and laid smart stone pavers on a diagonal to enhance the feeling of space. ‘Fortunately, I didn’t have to squeeze in an outdoor table, because the indoor dining area connects directly with the garden via a wall of Crittall windows and doors. But I designed a curved bench for the end of the garden, which catches the very last of the evening light. When covered, the fire bowl doubles as a coffee table, so there is still plenty of room for entertaining.’
Sheila also designed a bespoke unit to house James’s barbecue, with a polished concrete top, but the rest of the garden is given over to plants. ‘Filling a space with greenery is the best way to blur its boundaries,’ she says. ‘And bringing plants right up to the windows really increases the sense of depth. Here, I planted a beautiful multi-stemmed Prunus serrula quite close to the house, so you see the rest of the garden through its gorgeous burnished branches. I put two more specimens of the same tree in the front garden, where they veil the house from the street.’
‘Then it was just a question of filling in the understorey,’ she continues, with the nonchalance of a practised professional. ‘In the front, I made a stylised meadow, with a matrix of Hakonechloa macra and Libertia grandiflora studded with clipped yew buns, through which I ran a succession of bulbs – snowdrops, then white Narcissus ‘Thalia’, ‘White Triumphator’ tulips and Allium ‘Mont Blanc’. The alliums are followed by my favourite martagon lily, ‘Claude Shride’, which echoes the rich coppery shade of the tree bark and, finally, the classic white Japanese anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ goes on blooming into early autumn. We were able to increase the planting area significantly and it is now filled with a succession of flowers for most of the year.’
In the back garden, the plant palette is equally finely tuned, but relies in large part on a clever combination of foliage. Framed by the ground-floor windows, the Tibetan cherry rises out of a carpet of grass-like Luzula nivea and ferns. A wiry tangle of Muehlenbeckia complexa contrasts with glossy-leaved Asarum europaeum, and a sprinkling of dainty seasonal flowers starts with bulbs, then Geranium nodosum, Mexican daisies and Gillenia trifoliata, and culminates with more white Japanese anemones.
Dotted through the beds as anchor points are clipped balls of Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’, and the back left corner is covered with a blanket of Pachysandra terminalis. This was chosen to survive life under the trampoline, but James and Olivia are so delighted with their new-look garden that they are reluctant to reinstate it. ‘The fact is, we don’t really need it anymore,’ says James. ‘The girls now have so much fun playing outside that there is talk of installing a ladder so they can visit the kids next door.’ I don’t know if Sheila has ever designed a ladder before, but I am quite sure she would be able to come up with an extremely elegant one.
Sheila Jack Landscapes: sheilajack.com
Alister Thorpe1/4The garden’s boundaries are hidden by a wall of foliage created with Trachelospermum jasminoides, which increases the sense of space and sets off a bespoke cedar bench and pale sandstone stacker paving.
Alister Thorpe2/4Geranium nodosum. Martagon lily ‘Claude Shride’.
Alister Thorpe3/4A tapestry of ferns, Erigeron karvinskianus, cranesbill, Luzula nivea and glossy-leaved Asarum europaeum thrive in the dry shade below the Tibetan cherry
Alister Thorpe4/4
