London Woodland

This is a naturalistic garden created for a house built recently in a secluded woodland glade 20 minutes from the heart of London. The architect designed the building to wrap round two sides of the site, with all its main windows looking inward to the mature oak tree that dominates the space. I wanted to preserve the feeling of immersion in a wood, while simultaneously heightening the experience through the planting. Imitating conditions in the wild, we seeded the area beneath the canopy with shade-tolerant lawn grasses and created mixed borders in the dappled light beyond, blurring the boundary between the garden and the adjoining wood and ensuring long seasons of complementary changing colour.