My sister and her husband have lived in their typical London terrace for over twenty years, raising three lovely boys who are now off on their own adventures. The broken tree house and worn-out grass had been unused for years and the sliding doors from the kitchen were mostly firmly locked when I was called in for assistance. The garden needed a new life. Gillian had a landscape contractor friend in mind to do the physical work, and so my design had to be detailed and specific, so he could follow the plans easily.

 

We talked about what ideas Gillian already had for the garden – no lawn please, keep the pond, somewhere to sit and maybe a greenhouse. I measured and drew up a site survey of what was already there, took a lot of photos, Then drew up a simple sweeping gravel path through luscious perennials and swaying grasses, with a larger pond, three of the smallest of cherry trees, a picnic table set apart from the house, and a beautiful, small but perfectly formed, greenhouse-come- potting shed. Eyebrows were raised when I insisted on re-using the old concrete paving, but re-edged in reclaimed brick, those worn slabs with their sprinkling of lichen give the sense of maturity I was looking for. I love old things, why waste when you can re-use?

"Previously we had an anonymous plot which we worked on from time to time, attempting
to make it better. This gradually created a wasteland which didn’t matter because the
children just wanted to kick a ball around. Now they have gone, and we have our new
garden, we can have breakfast in the garden, read the paper, in a place that really improves

the quality of our lives, another lovely room, Difficult to imagine another room in the house
giving us so much pleasure.”-Gillian