Concrete jungle: lush shrubs and potted greenery transform this Chiswick former car park into a pretty compact garden

The harsh lines of a squared-off car park made way for a tranquil London garden in the round.
GAP Photos
Pattie Barron28 July 2017

When property developers saw the space at the back of the house they were renovating in Chiswick, they built a parking place for two cars, rendered the two side walls and added a big electric gate along the back.

That was the functional but cheerless picture that greeted landscape designer Karen Rogers when she was asked by the new owner of the house to rip out the car park and make a garden instead, in the square space of just seven metres by six-and-a-half metres.

“My client wanted a better view from her new living room than a couple of cars, an electric gate and regulation concrete paving,” says Rogers. “A keen gardener, she wanted a beautiful, secluded garden that she could sit in and feel surrounded by plants rather than the buildings clearly visible beyond that awful gate.”

Rogers took a closer look at the side walls which, beneath the render, were London stock brick, the same as the house walls.

So her team hacked away at the render and replaced the eyesore of the long electric gate that did nothing to screen out the street beyond, with a back wall of the same brick, setting the stage for a walled courtyard garden. “If removing render reveals bricks in a less than perfect state, you can always add a camouflage of trellis,” says Rogers.

Instead of the flimsy trellis the developers used merely to border the top of the walls, Rogers covered the walls top to bottom with panels of hardwood trellis that were pre-painted in Farrow & Ball’s French Grey by the Garden Trellis Company, which also made the central door in the back wall, painted the same pretty shade.

A whiter shade: sandstone paving andpale accessories lighten the space (GAP Photos)
Compulsory Credit: GAP Photos//C

“My client wanted a door to accommodate difficult deliveries from the street, so I decided that rather than tuck it away, I would make a feature of it and suggest something enticing behind,” says Rogers.

The obvious design route for the garden would be to run raised beds around the three walls, following the square outline, but Rogers wanted something less linear, so decided on a circular theme, with beds, paving and steps all curving around a central circle. “Square gardens suit a more contemporary space, but circles have a softening effect and are more inviting. And in a small space like this, using a circle as a template makes the whole area feel bigger.”

Because the client wanted to feel surrounded by planting, Rogers decided to sink the garden. “We excavated the centre by just 400 millimetres, but it makes a big difference. The garden feels more roomy because there are steps going down into it, so you feel like you’re sitting in a real garden rather than an outside space.

“The watchpoint with excavation is that you need to check where any drains are, as there are rules about excavation. Here the drain was 1.5mm below ground, so we were well within limits.” A good rule of thumb is not to go lower than any nearby drain cover. Check with building regulations if concerned.

Irregular slabs of sandstone in varying soft tones replaced the large squares of concrete paving, and were interspersed with curves fashioned from stock bricks, laid on end. The two steps leading down into the garden echoed the same curves, but the second lower step was purposely shortened at the sides, to allow for twin pots of box balls. “Wider, generous steps give a feeling of grandeur, and are easier to navigate than tiddly steps. The pots are a good idea because they frame the steps and act as a safety stop, too.”

The brick raised beds are just 300mm deep, but at the sunken centre of the garden they are 700mm deep, making them an easy level for working on, and, densely planted, give that special sense of enclosure. “At their narrowest point, the beds are a metre deep,” says Rogers. “You need good depth to accommodate different sizes and shapes of plants, and you can get that more easily in a curved bed.”

The buildings and the looming black lamp post in the street just the other side of the walls are now screened out by a couple of pleached hornbeams on either side of the door, and these will eventually meet, to form one high green hedge.

Clematis, climbing roses and evergreen jasmine clamber up the walls while silver-stemmed birch trees, the full white blooms of Hydrangea Annabelle and the purple flower spikes of Salvia Caradonna contribute to a crisp, elegant white-and-blue plant palette.

At night, simple spike pots wash light up into the hornbeams and a trio of silver birch trees, to magical effect. “The smaller the garden, the more important the detail,” says Rogers. “The key is to set it all out beforehand. You have to be very precise in your measurements, especially when working with circles, because it all has to fit perfectly. If one small detail is a tiny bit off, then everything else is affected.”