BELSIZE PARK
I was approached by Neiheiser Argyros Architects whom the client had commissioned to reconfigure and refurbish the lower two floors of a large Victorian house in the heart of Belsize Park, a short walk from the open spaces of Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath.
This north-west facing garden sits almost two metres above the lower ground floor and more than a metre below the raised ground floor. The architects designed the terraces adjacent to the house and the tiered planters that act as a structural retainer for the main garden.
The garden hadn’t been tended for years; it was formless and covered in brambles. The new design evolved from the arrival point at the top and bottom of the stairs to include a good sized lawn for the clients’ young children, a seating area in the sunny part of the garden, a vegetable bed, storage and, of course, beautiful planting.
The clay pavers we specified for the patios by the house were used on a low wall, designed to slightly cocoon the seating area and, together with the existing boundary wall, act as a support for a deep L-shaped hardwood bench. Set into the centre of this terrace is an inset steel fire pit with an integrated cover that can be walked on when not in use.
A row of pleached ornamental pear trees will, in time, screen the garden from the houses behind. Trellising provides further screening on the left-hand boundary, its horizontal bands echoing the simple vertical bands of the red steel railings.
Three multi-stem crab apples, Malus ‘Evereste’, were introduced into each of the main planting beds to add vertical structure. Their red winter fruits repeat the colour of the railings, as does the Bee Balm, Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’, in summer.
Wall-trained apple trees and the vegetable bed will help the children experience the joy of ‘grow-your-own’. This is a productive and highly organised garden that will become softened and enveloped by its colourful planting.
Completed 2022
Landscape Contractor: Karat Landscapes