Vertical garden

Designed by Andrew Wenham MSGD

The dream

The property is a family home located on a south-west facing, sloping site in Hampstead.  The clients wanted to maximise lawn space for their young family and reduce the oppressive feel of the high retaining boundary walls.  Their brief to designer Andrew Wenham included the gardens to the front and rear of the property and a roof terrace.

By re-imagining the space vertically, designer Andrew Wenham created an affiliation between the house and garden and used different planes to connect and disguise boundaries.

The transformation

Having collaborated effectively with Andrew over many years, The Garden Company was delighted to be selected to build this interesting – and challenging – garden.

The landscaping team applied their craftmanship and knowhow to construct: a curved paddlestone wall. together with trellis over foldback doors, separating layers of planting and a living wall; and high planters (3-5.5 m high) to allow for more layers of planting, creating the perception that the planters were at the higher level.

The softscaping included planting bonsai Pinus banksiana to reach Into the space. Further bonsai pines were used on the roof terrace and a vertical slate waterfall was installed to good effect.

A wave of pleached Hornbeam was used to connect the upper and lower garden. The clients were delighted with the end-result and the opportunity it created for their young children to play safely.

On awarding a Principal BALI Award for Design Excellence to this project, the judges singled out the finesse applied to bring to life such a complex scheme. A Principal Award is given where a project demonstrates an exceptional level of craft skills, exceptional client satisfaction, often a high degree of difficulty has been presented and yet still the scheme has been executed to a high level of quality. In summary, this garden was considered by the judges to have the ‘wow factor’.

All images on this page are Copyright © Andrew Wenham

From a designer’s perspective, I choose The Garden Company when I have a project that is multi-faceted, as I know they have the depth of experience and knowledge to realise my designs, and an unrivalled finish. I have... read more

From a designer’s perspective, I choose The Garden Company when I have a project that is multi-faceted, as I know they have the depth of experience and knowledge to realise my designs, and an unrivalled finish. I have worked with them for a long time and built up a strong trust that the project will be built on time and on budget, to my exacting standards. The best thing about collaborating with The Garden Company is working with James and his team, knowing the result will be excellent.

Hide
Andrew Wenham, MSGD
Back to top