An English Urban Garden

The Telegraph Garden by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz

Gardens are a quintessential part of London living. While rural areas get to enjoy vast space and fertile scenery, a patch of green feels all the more precious in the city.

Gardens have become a primary outlet for creativity in the urban home. For one, hard limitations on the available space encourages innovative design, just as limitations can enhance rather than hinder ingenuity in any creative endeavour.

There’s also the fact that the front of a house is often protected by conservation area status or other planning restrictions, so those looking to express themselves through their home need to do so at the rear of the property.

Much of modern domestic design is now built around the relationship between house and garden. New builds often wrap around green spaces and use glass to keep them visible throughout, while a typical extension now serves to open the interior to the exterior and blur the line between the two.

For me, visiting a beautiful garden provides relaxation and inspiration. It’s essential I keep up to date with the latest and greatest in garden design, as had the pleasure of seeing during this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The annual show is a chance to explore top tier garden design along with the most unique and brilliant plants and flowers from around the world.

My personal highlight was The Telegraph Garden by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz, which truly conveyed the modern relationship between indoors and outdoors with the theme of an outdoor room.

Their reinterpretation of classic Italian features such as terraced trees and stone surfaces with  contemporary minimalistic geometry creates a space that is immediately soothing and peaceful. The bronze framed waterfall evoked nature, classical Italy, modern design in a single feature.

A plant I hope to bring into my own garden is the Angelica Archangelica. Its starburst shape is dramatic and dynamic, tipped with elegant, delicate flowers with a soothing aroma. Let’s hope I’m blessed with green fingers this summer.

Click here to visit the RHS website, where you can browse the award winners and have your own virtual exploration of the show. There’s extensive features on all the gardens and plentiful photos, videos and text to inspire your own personal paradise.

By John Dyer-Grimes