Height of drama: awkward L-shaped garden transformed by a spectacular living wall, artful fencing and fuss-free planting

When the owners of this house in Belsize Park, north-west London, built their kitchen extension, they had to sacrifice some of their garden, turning a square into a much smaller L-shaped space on show from all the main living areas. Get it wrong and there would be nowhere to hide. They knew they needed to call in the professionals to make the space work.

Now the family not only has a seamless wraparound garden, but a view looking out over a tapestry of textured plants to a show-stopping 33ft-wide living wall full of flowers and foliage. Framed by Western Red Cedar slatwork fencing, it looks like a beautiful wide-screen piece of art. And, crucially with these narrow dimensions, it keeps space clear at ground level.

“This garden was a gift for us,” says garden designer John Davies, “because the doors open all the way on both sides so the whole garden feels like an extension of the kitchen. But with L-shaped gardens the challenge is always about knitting two narrow rectangles together. You’re finding ways of making two different axes read as one.”

Believing that “all small gardens need a big, dramatic gesture”, Davies worked with London’s king of the living wall, Adam Shepherd aka The Landscape Architect, to build the 4ft-high living tapestry. He certainly delivered.

The result is a visual feast, with small plants sharing space with giants including fatsia japonica, tetrapanax and even hollyhocks. The hydroponic system is automatically watered and fed with organic seaweed feed. Shepherd’s team visits four times a year to check the system and do some deadheading, but the clients don’t have to touch it.

The spectacular living wall is undoubtedly the main event, but it only works because it blends into the wider garden. The designers swapped notes so plants such as persicaria, mind-your-own-business and blue-flowered geranium “Rozanne” are used both in the wall and at ground level, “in the hope that people spot it, even subconsciously, and it all blends together”, says Shepherd.

UNIFICATION

To unite both rectangles of the L-shaped space, Davies specified smart Jura Beige limestone paving throughout and a deep rectangular planting bed on each axis which broadly mirror each other. Where they meet in the corner he created a “destination” seating area where two pale blue Acapulco chairs look fresh against the living wall. Large evergreen domes of box either side form a gateway between them, as if leading the way to morning coffee.

Davies likes to use a London plant toolkit that he calls “woodland edge”. He says: “It’s my default setting for small London gardens because even if they’re facing in the ‘right direction’, there’s always something that’s going to block your sunlight whether it’s buildings, trees or a fence.” So he chooses plants that thrive in partial shade, such as hellebores, geraniums, box, grasses, ferns, astrantia, rodgersia, persicaria, epimedium and hydrangea “Limelight”. Here he also includes a beautiful Japanese maple tree, acer griseum, which is easily kept umbrella-pruned so it doesn’t get too big.

It’s useful advice for any Londoner looking for fuss-free plants for their garden, whether L-shaped, on the wall, or otherwise — look on the label for “partial shade”.

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