“I love this garden,” says Charlotte Harris of design duo Harris Bugg, who, between Charlotte in London and Hugo Bugg in Exeter, take on a dizzying array of projects of all sizes and types. Not to mention her upcoming Main Avenue show garden for this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Tucked away behind a north London terrace, this is one of the couple’s smaller gardens, a microcosm of their focus on texture and form, with imaginative hard landscaping.
A pair of Japanese pagoda trees (Styphnolobium japonicum) are an airy presence at the front of the garden, with mounds of Hakonechloa macra at their feet. Ascending from the smooth concrete surface at the house, a fixed boulder follows plastered stepping stones from York.
“Looseness is a word that was used a lot during planning,” recalls Charlotte as she describes the client’s brief. “He wanted something wild, like a lawn in the back garden.” It’s music to a designer’s ears, she notes, when clients with small gardens don’t ask for a lawn. Instead, the garden has “moments” during the day in response to the sun’s progress; An antique table at the back is not cluttered with chairs and provides a focus, if not a destination, for the winding path of stepping stones that begins on the second level of the garden.
What Small city garden facing southwest. Where London. Size 49.5 square meters. Floor Improved London sound. climate moderate. hardening zone USDA 9
Valeriana officinalis gives height to a meadow-like plant, at least 1 m tall, with small, terminal flowers of white or pale pink. Needs to be thinned out to keep it in check.
The planting
The combined canopies of a pair of Japanese pagoda trees (Styphnolobium japonicum) create a sense of privacy outside the garden room of the home and cast a bit of shade across the front of this sophisticated urban lawn. Fresh green carpets of Hakonechloa macra flutter happily over the edges and are further accompanied by plants that are generally more accommodating than aggressive. The evergreen Anemanthele Lessoniana (Pheasant Grass) can get too crowded but is easily thinned out by running your fingers through it like a razor comb.
“I like the idea that things are moving here and not being controlled too much,” says Charlotte of this annual garden. The intention is to retain a sense of delicacy. Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea ‘Dalmatian White’) are expected to spread and cranesbills (Geranium ‘Brookside’) are expected to migrate. Common valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has a reputation for wild behavior, but it can be easily thinned out as it weaves its way through this London property.
“You want certain things to be brutal so they can hold back a kick next to paths,” says Charlotte. To that end, she and Hugo used Alchemilla erythropoda, which is “really pretty” but tough like Alchemilla mollis. Dense carpet Soleirolia soleirolii (Mind your own business) was also used in the shade: “It’s such a hooligan, but right here, with the stepping stones.”
Perennial grass Hakonechloa macra along with Hosta ‘Devon Green’, wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) and mind your business (Soleirolia soleirolii) provide undergrowth structure for this shady corner.
The back uses leftover slabs of York stone, put together by contractor Mark Whyman in a way that is more whimsical than modular, helping the flow of the planting. At the front a procured boulder extends towards a smooth limestone pavement. This sense of warm elegance extends to the woven oak trellis: “For this tiny piece of lawn, we wanted something softer than slatted trellis,” says Charlotte. The result is a contemporary nod to woven hazelnut.
Reports from the owner suggest that this garden is constantly visited by native wildlife, with squirrels competing for wild strawberries. It is chemical free and the hostas show no signs of snail damage. “It’s entirely because there are a lot of birds here,” says Charlotte. “It’s a very happy little garden.”
Foraging in the garden
Part of the client’s brief for Harris Bugg Studio was that they wanted their urban lawn to have an edible element. Edges of wild strawberries and prostrate rosemary provide texture and effective ground cover and are harvestable. Herbs in sunny areas and in pots include thyme, fennel, lemon verbena, upright rosemary, and fluffy laurel shrubs.
Another inexpensive plant is the Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum simulans): “It has a pretty delicate quality, then you get the pepper at the end of the season,” says Charlotte. A broad-leaved Sausage Vine (Holboellia latifolia) has happily covered the back wall, producing odd-looking but tasty fruit in the fall.
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useful information
Learn more about Charlotte and Hugo’s work at harrisbugg.com.
