Project Home | The Back Garden

Having left my farm and farmyard friends behind, I moved to London where life could not be more different. At our new house, the south facing garden was muddy with failed lawn and lined with hedges of overly-happy black bamboo, which had spread it’s vigorous runners in a network beneath the whole garden. I knew the lawn and the bamboo had to go - and I knew it would involve digging 60cm deep. We started cutting the bamboos for use as Halloween broomsticks and by February 2025, the space was clear and I was left with a blank canvas of 16m x 8.5m - a larger footprint than the house itself. My daughter wanted a playroom that I couldn’t materialise indoors, and a rainbow garden for butterflies, a pond to paddle in, things to eat - and chickens (not to eat).

With a giant London Plane tree in the neighbouring garden to one side and a block of flats to the other, one side of the garden receives no direct sunlight at ground level until summer is well risen. I wanted to incorporate the view of the lovely cottage behind, and hide the view of the more urban features of London. In came the biggest trees I could squeeze through my 80cm access…

The resulting three-level garden leads down from the kitchen terrace to a central pond – an 18th century French limestone trough, filled with pond plants, flowing down into a square pool that interrupts the paving bricks. Running along the boundaries are two densely planted beds which are flanked by London-brick walls, now slowly being covered in climbers. The Wynn-Jones’ of Crug Farm supplied a number of exciting plants, including Indigofera pendula, which flowers it’s long racemes into November, Fuchsia boliviensis with it’s pendant earring red flowers (which I shall have to wait for!), and into the rare plants we dotted herbs and veggies, which I shall look forward to renewing next year – planting again the tomatoes into the stems of Edgeworthia chysantha, and another cucumber vine to sprawl up the crabapple tree.

At the back, a shepherds hut houses my shed and my daughter’s ‘other’ bedroom, and a (very fox proof) chicken enclosure is home to our chickens (Roly Poly the Polish, Pom Pom the fluffy silkie, Chicolina the Padovana, Henny Penny the Cuckoo Legbar and Zenga the Silver Spangled Appenzeller). They aren’t yet able to keep on top of the slugs, but we do enjoy fresh eggs for breakfast…

And what a difference a few months makes – the garden here is 5 months old. … Watch this space!