Chelsea Pebbled

Chelsea Pebbled

London Based Garden Design and the City Influence

Forget the Chelsea Flower Show, the Grow-All-Your-Own-Food-in-a-Bucket movement and old Uncle Alan Titmouse and all.  This elusive creature, the London fashion, is moving into minimalism in gardens.

How very stylish some of these gardens are.  Cool grained marble slabs combined with the clean lines of clumps of green bamboo and built-in hardwood benches.  A waterfall over granite rocks, clumps of dripping ferns, pale grey limestone slabs, a topiary corkscrew yew.  A central thick-glass-covered pool of clear water above blue tiles, warm honey-coloured sandstone slabs, and a single grey-green olive tree.  These are all descriptions of award-winning gardens, although gardening had very little to do with them.  All are carefully enclosed and screened – completely private.

Another Designer of the Year award-winning garden on a roof terrace outside a penthouse combines smooth pebbles, hardwood paths and slate slab seating areas together with formal planting of palms, grasses and bamboo to create an extraordinary sense of being on top of the world.  No need of screening for privacy here and one of the best views of the city.

The more exciting London garden designers have moved towards a much more austere concept. This is in keeping with modern trends in architecture, where pure functionalism has at last been banished and deceptively simple classic lines are once again making London one of the finest cities in the world.

The strict architectural elements, the use of water, the carefully controlled and sculpted, and rather sparse, vegetation, have nothing at all in common with the English concept of a garden, the exuberant, slightly lawless, flower-filled embarras des richesse. The more recent London garden is not a recreation and even less is it a green space dedicated to mowing and  keeping the stomach muscles in trim.  It has little to do with gardening and a great deal to with art. 

This is the cultural centre of the world. London is where fashion begins, but, as always, London fashion is a distillation of all that the great city garners from other cultures. These gardens have faint memories of the great enclosed gardens of early Islam.They owe something to Japan. But they are neither Islamic not Japanese gardens. There is a new originality in these designs, with their use of smooth stone, empty space, curving walls, sculptured plants, and above all – lack of clutter – that is very modern London.

About the Author

For more exquisite designs and to view the work of one of the UK's best garden designers click here - Garden Design London

A designer who can transform your garden and outdoor space into something you couldn't even imagine!

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