This is a gentle renovation of a garden in South London.

My project brief was to re-purpose as much of the existing garden as possible. Crown lifting and thinning out a mature Olive tree and Japanese Maple.  The space is designed with low-maintenance, environment-friendly plants that prefer a mix of sun and shade.  The plants have architecture, colour and flowers throughout the year.  The plantings are a mix of grasses, shrubs and perennials that are predominantly evergreen.

The Alley Pocket Park is a project organised by the White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures.The park is located in the Alley behind Claremont, Trinity Triangle, Hastings.

I was asked to design and plant up a user-friendly pocket park for the Alley. To provide a space for social gatherings, entertainments and also a quiet space for relaxation. All of the plantings provide year-round interest with a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs and perennials. The plants chosen are wildlife-friendly which provide food and shelter.

The design needed to be in keeping with the industrial nature of the Alley. We used rough timbers for the seating area and large planters on wheels which provide ample room for trees and plants to flourish.

Darren French and Colleen Dawson built the first phase and Darren has built the new awning, vegetable garden and additional planters.

Lee Dyer Designed and built these fantastic new gates for the Alley entrance.

This garden had a very steep bank with difficult-awkward steps leading up to the house. We completely redesigned the garden by terracing the bank with brick and oak timbered retaining walls to provided a safe, complimentary and user-friendly set of steps up to the house. We also made sure to include wildlife-friendly planting schemes. It was very important to include a pond for the frogs, newts, stickle-back fish, bathing birds, dragonflies, foxes and badgers!

A new build bungalow in Hastings, East Sussex.  Starting from scratch. The garden design required low maintenance and robust plantings, not only to look good but also stand up to strong and often salt-laden winds.

Painting the fence a pale sage green helps to reflect the natural light but also provides a more suitable backdrop for the climbing roses and vines.