Islington, London

Creating a pocket-sized summer drinks garden in the shady courtyard of an Islington pub.

The brief was to transform the tiny yard behind an Islington pub into a leafy little retreat, nestled in a shady gap between the towering town houses of north London- on a very modest budget.

With a very strict use of space we kept clear access for deliveries and foot traffic, space for seating and retained a footprint for new planters along two walls.

Adding festoon lighting allowed us to grow up and over the space, achieving instant height in the first year with virginia creeper and clematis, with an understorey of shade loving evergreens and a scattering of summer flowers. Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ gave instant impact, with Fatsia japonica “Spider’s Web’ gradually building up an evergreen structure. Ferns, small hostas, Euphorbia and Soleirolia filled the understory and gave ground cover, while perennial foxglove ‘Spice Island’ gave scattered vertical spires of colour.

An automatic watering system kept this garden almost entirely maintenance-free.