Living Gardens

We love to use reclaimed materials in many of our front garden designs, particularly with listed buildings and in conservation areas where they compliment the surrounding architecture, as in this Tufnell Park garden.

This feature crab apple tree provides year-round interest with blossom, fruit and foliage changing throughout the seasons. Here we have underplanted with Erigeron karvinskianus and English lavender.

October dahlias defying the cold weather and dusky evenings to keep us cooped up indoors!

Check out our latest article on creating autumn interest in your garden (see link in biog).

A perfect example of autumnal interest with Salvia ‘love and kisses’ and a mixed canopy of trees in this stunning Islington garden. Reclaimed York stone glimmers in the recent showers, giving this contemporary garden room the perfect secluded aspect to enjoy the season’s rich array of colours from.

Gravel gardens help to conserve rain water and reduce run off, balancing the human and environmental needs of an urban landscape. Better still, the majority of plants that thrive here are beautiful, low maintenance choices that will support local biodiversity.

This everflowering Gladiolus, (Gladiolus tristis concolor) is, true to its common name, painting the autumn afternoon pink.

For more sustainable garden design ideas, check out the article linked in our biog.

Succulents are well adapted to withstand future heatwaves, and can look particularly stylish in contemporary courtyard gardens.

Follow the link in our profile to read our latest article on sustainable garden design ideas.

Enjoying the low September light in this Provence inspired, low maintenance courtyard garden in N1.

Verbena rigida and various dahlias painting the autumn boarders.

These can all be used as beautiful cut flowers, bringing a palette of your stunning September garden indoors in a tall bouquet.

Sedums are the glory of the new season, welcoming autumn in with a luscious array of pinks, purples and greens.

Great for pollinators, slug resistant and drought tolerant, they are another fabulous choice for future proofing your gardens.

The various species pictured here include Hylotelephium spectabile ‘starburst’, pictures at Kew Gardens, Hylotelephium telephium ‘Altropurpureum’, and our personal favourite, Hylotelephium telephium Autumn Joy’.

We love using the striking, tall perennial Echinops ritro, or Southern Globethistle. These stunning late summer flowers give way to striking seed heads in winter, providing interest throughout the seasons.
Used here as drift planting in the Olympic park, we love to pair it with tall miscanthus grasses or echinacea at the back of boarders.
Fabulous for supporting pollinators, once established it is also drought tolerant, making it a very sustainable choice that will attract bees and butterflies to your garden and withstand the hot, dry weather.