Courtyard Garden with Pergola & Patio - Driveways & Paving

Category: Driveways, Patio, Paving & Walls

Garden Design Project: DWSEML001

Surrounded by these uninspiring very red driveways garage walls, this new build garden felt like a courtyard garden so I decided to treat it as such.

That is, how do they look at the garden from outside and how do they move (the most kinaesthetic element of our interaction with the landscapes) into and through the garden from the house?

Here the Kitchen was built with a pseudo-conservatory.

Consequently, it felt best to link the main garden structures to this element of the house rather than the lounge doors.

Instead a smaller corresponding patio was designed to mirror the larger patio where access was needed to the garage and driveways.

The client had always wanted a pergola so I decided to build off one of the walls to turn what was once a visual block, into something that one could sit against under the spring wisteria blossom and the summer bloom of the Chilean Potato vine (Solanum 'Glasnevin').

By varying the length of the laterals and altering the design on site to angle these laterals from the wall, we were able to continue the theme of hemi-circles and sweeps.

To counteract this increase in paved area I also increased the depth of the flower bed to allow the continuation of an enclosed space feeling.

The planting style is one very much influenced by time working and training with the influential Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf in Holland and consists of tall perennials. Check back for pictures of the planting as it develops.

There are also now seven climbers planted in this garden;

• Solanum 'glasnevin'
• Wisteria sinensis 'prolific'
• Hydrangea x semiola
• Lonicera heneryana 'copper beauty'
• Campsis x radicans
• Trachelospermum jasminoides
• Clematis 'Bill McKenzie'

These will cover the pergola and turn the walls a nice lush green as five out of the seven climbers are evergreen.

I don't like trellis work attached to walls so I have strained galvanised wire across walls which is all but invisible except upon the closest of inspections.

Submitted By: Guy Jones
Website: www.emotivelandscapes.co.uk