Chelsea - Adam Frost's Frank Lloyd Wright inspired garden

geometry

The geometry is striking: overlapping slabs of very nice polished concrete, a square of box and bespoke seating. You have to step over the water, and to go up and down the levels to make it to the end: this journey creates space.  The trees with their bare stems and 'V' form on top (Zelkova serrata 'Green Vase') are perfectly placed for shade, seclusion and leading on the eye.
Rodgersia is a plant I'd love to use (it needs a moist root run, and borders water) and here its chestnut leaf form perfectly sets off fans of ferns and spikes of foxgloves. The blue geranium at the front of that planting section links to cooling blue and white entrance fronted by more geranium, fine froth of Luzula nivea and upward Iris sibirica.

plant texture

plants for moist condtions

Phoenix Garden - reviving

On the edge of the Covent Garden area, the Phoenix Garden is a haven for workers. Both Centrepoint, a '60s landmark, and St. Giles', a fine but dilapidated Georgian church, are visible through trees.

For a small site, the garden has a wide range of quiet corners.  Intrigue and variation is created by paths and hardstandings for benches in a range of materials. 

There is clearly a design eye at work with plant texture, successional interest and exploitation of aspect considered (see Echium, left, with the back of Shaftesbury Avenue cinema behind).  Also, wildlife is encouraged with this Belfast sink pond and this gabion planter - crevices for invertebrates - and insect friendly planting.  Pigeons aren't the only birds; I saw finches and heard lots of tweeting in between the beep beeps of dustbin lorries reversing. This is a space that delights and calms with subtle art in the centre of the city. http://www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com/home.ikml

Designing on a Grid

A garden design relates to the house by using the house's proportions.  Designers (usually) play with a grid based on the proportions. This contributes to unity, which is key to the feeling of ease you want in a garden.

This private garden in Herne Hill, south London, shows the principle. Here the brick frame in the paving is offset from the house, and you can see the edge of the pond is offset from the back door.

Brick edge sets out other areas in the garden.  Planting softens the edges and provides a range of textures. The square terracotta tiles are used in a grid pattern elsewhere, but in the sun lounger area they are placed to give a false perspective, so it seems longer.  
                                          
Using brick provides unity of detail, as it is the same colour and size as the house brick;  the terracotta colour connects with the lintels.  Just using two hard landscaping materials keeps the design simple and harmonious, a good structure for the riot of plant textures.

This garden was one in a London-wide trail of designed private gardens not otherwise open.  This particular garden was designed by Acres Wild. The trail is becoming a May Day Bank Holiday fixture, http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/static/html/features/gardentrail2010/gardentrail.html.  See one of the very early postings on this blog about a Clapham garden last year.

Leaf colour and texture - Melinda's garden

These textures and colours ZING!

Golden Hop (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus')

Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Eva')I think...let me know, Melinda!

Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutifolia 'Overdam')

...and something interestingly glaucous front right.

Melinda's a garden designer and a design tutor. She knows what she's doing. She opened her garden under the National Garden Scheme, http://www.ngs.org.uk/. Below, you can see her husband taking entry money, the blue of his shirt setting off the yellow Choysia (shrub) behind him, and the frosted lime green of feather grass (Stipa tenuisssima) in the path. Stipa self-sows freely, as does the Nigella, little specks of blue flowers in the foreground. She 'edits' what pops up each year (that was the term of another garden visitor). Another tip to store away for the future is the paint colour for the fence. It sets off the palette Melinda has chosen really well.

The Key - food plants for form, texture and colour

It was most enjoyable to study the clever planting in this garden at Chelsea. Edibles were mixed with herbaceous perennials and structural shrubs in an original way, and with full attention to form, texture and colour. In this picture (left) box balls, Ricinis communis (palmate leaves in centre), spiky eryngium, oriental poppies, lillies, cabbage, kale and orache make a beautiful composition in blues, purples, glaucous green and mid-green. It's all too closely planted to be sustainable (as show gardens are) but provides inspiration for borders at home. Plantlist: http://www.edenproject.com/documents/MicrosoftWord-KEYGARDENPLANTINGLIST.pdf

The garden echoes a homeless individual's life journey. Dean Stalham's poem is painted on columns that represent the breach from hard journey to a place of health, growth and stability. Brass doorkeys glitter in the bark mulch path.

I particularly like the placement of the pillars in relation to the deck, the angle at which the raised bed is placed and the rows of veg within it. It all looks 'off', no right angles or 45 degrees. To me, it conveys the awkward reality of a fresh start but it works well and is pleasing.

I admire the job Paul Stone, the designer, has done. Over a hundred people contributed to the garden: homeless individuals, those recovering from substance misuse, and prisoners. Read more, http://keygarden.com/