NATURE'S PLAYGROUND

Dutch garden and landscape designer Arjan Boekel has transformed his tiny town garden in the Netherlands into a miniature woodland glade

- ZIA ALLAWAY

As one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, the Netherlands offers few people much outdoor space to call their own. This presents a challenge for designers aiming to create a garden rich in biodiversity with a beautiful aesthetic, that also fulfils the practical needs of their clients, in just a few square metres.

Dutch garden designer and landscape architect Arjan Boekel was faced with this problem when he, his wife Fleur and their two young children moved from Amsterdam back to his hometown of Heiloo in the northwest of the country. “As our kids were growing up we wanted to relocate to the place where I was raised, which is in a beautiful, quiet area.” Despite the semi-rural location, land is at a premium in the town, and the back garden of the Boekels’ 1970s house is a mere six by ten metres, and overlooked by neighbours on all sides.

Although Arjan has designed countless gardens and landscapes for other people, this was also the first real garden he had owned, and he had a bold plan to transform it: “When we arrived five years ago, most of the garden was paved, with a few plants and a fishpond, but little else,” he explains. “But I wanted something different, a surprising family garden, with a large seating area and as many plants as possible to create an intimate, immersive feeling. I didn’t want a ‘children’s garden’ either, with a playground and toys, but rather an adventurous natural space that we could all enjoy.”

He envisaged trees and planting in the centre of the garden to evoke a leafy woodland-edge atmosphere, while creating privacy from the neighbouring houses. “I also wanted to see the plants from every angle, whether you were looking out from the house, sitting in the garden, or entering it from the back gate,” he adds.