It must be nearly two years since I was brought in to redesign this garden. A garden evolves and changes constantly, and my aim is to work alongside my clients throughout the seasons offering advice and help when needed. This particular garden although stunning had always appeared to be created in sections, not one of the areas cohesively blending with each other.

The house is a 1960’s bungalow which was redesigned and rebuilt a number of years ago in a cutting-edge contemporary style, a building that demands the garden not only matches it in appearance but enhances it at every level, a simple area of lawn and borders would not work in any way. The glass doors, essentially windows to the exterior give a full view of the garden from every angle. The planting has to be structured yet soft. Formal planting combined with the strong lines of the building would be too harsh in this particular situation.

The idea for the ‘Green Wall’ came about when I was asked to make the areas of the garden connect. Adventures with paths are excellent, to investigate is a bonus, but constant angular changing of direction in my opinion does not work and perhaps never quite getting there is rather irritating. I had already created what I termed ‘The Dry Riverbed’ eliminating a small area of lawn. It was planted with low growing Grasses, Asters and Euphorbia ‘Honey Pot’ to give both structure but also to softened the grey slate and large stones that made up the surface. I had also introduced some steps from the lawned area to the water feature. The intention is to plant the border around the steps with grasses and structured plants, to encourage them to essentially froth onto the steps, creating a screen but yet still allowing access.

Once completed it immediately connected the area to the water feature but in doing so alerted the eye to a structure that had been created from slatted wood and painted black, a seating area, although equally cutting edge it never quite came into its own, the water feature was beautifully planted and the pergola strong and demanding but the area that was meant for sitting and looking across the garden, was uncomfortable. The bench style seating was upright hardly the place to take a cup of tea, and although the water feature is just meters away from your feet, it never encouraged you to sit and take in the surroundings. So, the question was how to enhance the area? My client had already started to use the structure to display plants, in particular orchids during the summer months, there were lots of varieties of ferns, with two tree ferns positioned close to the water feature. It was time to start thinking and working through my thought process and in so doing researching though my extensive library, paying particular attention to the Victorian period, when displaying plants was perhaps one might say at its height. The Auricular theatre came to mind and from that I felt what was needed was a backdrop, reminiscing to my days on working with interiors, a wallpaper or paint colour gives you the opportunity to set dress with furniture, pictures, the list is endless. The same effect could be created within a garden much the same as when disguising a fence, a choice of climbers or shrubs giving both colour and texture and using perennials or bulbs in the same way as the orchids would be during summer. So, I adapted this idea to the rear wall, it is 3metres wide by 1m65cmdeep a large enough expanse to give impact yet at the same time not intrusive. My initial idea was a living wall, but on close inspection many factors just did not work for my client, maintenance, irrigation and the position and orientation of the structure would have made it difficult to both install and maintain. Some years ago, at Chelsea Flower Show I took a brochure from a company called VistaGreen who do artificial walls, subsequently I rang the company and asked if a sample could be sent. The customer service was outstanding and within two days a sample arrived beautifully packaged an excellent example to show my client. I must admit I tend to err towards natural products, I am a very natural and organic gardener, but even I could not fault the workmanship and the finished effect. The panels themselves are guaranteed by the company for five years though I would imagine it would be many years before anyone would want to get rid of such a feature the wall is also recyclable a good investment. The green wall would work in many situations, a small city garden, where the growing of plants may be limited but to create a visual backdrop with a table and a couple of chairs a place to relax would outweigh the initial cost. The photographs speak for themselves; the area is now prepared for the displaying of Orchids and more Ferns and perhaps now it can become a place to be able to sit by the water and take in the beauty of the feature.

(The photographs were taken on completion late in the day, and so it is not dressed as it will be in the next couple of months)