TOTAL IMMERSION

Sara Jane Rothwell has softened the hard landscaping of this sloping plot with rich planting that contrasts with the repeated use of Corten-steel features

- KATE JACOBS

The brief 

The owners of this new-build house in north London - a Swedish couple with three teenage children - brought garden designer Sara Jane Rothwell on board during extensive internal renovations. For the garden, their brief was simple: to fill the space with plants. The owners wanted lots of flowering plants and references to their Swedish heritage, as well as a gazebo getaway for their teenagers.

The plot, a rectangle of around 40m by 16.5m, was not without its challenges. It was sloping and dominated by a rendered retaining wall that snaked, free-form, around the back and one side of the garden. Near the house it bulged out to surround a raised planting bed, which was dominated by scrubby shrubs and a large oak tree, Quercus robur. Next to the house, a huge terrace had been paved with dazzling white porcelain tiles, with grass covering the rest of the tiered space. "The white rendered walls were very much in your face, while the effect of all the tiling was blinding," recalls Sara Jane.

The design

Sara Jane kept the retaining wall, painting it an unobtrusive dark grey that the new planting would quickly screen. At the point where the wall curves out into the centre of the garden, she boosted the sense of width by working laterally across the space, creating fullwidth gravel patios and planting borders. She replaced the porcelain tiles on the terrace with slate, and reduced its size by adding beds to bring planting closer to the house. A neat path of hardwood boards, laid flush with the slate paving, cuts through the terrace and splits it in two, further lessening its impact.