You might have to do a double take before believing this leafy, secluded and lingerworthy outdoor space really is a front yard. While it’s particularly large, as well as shielded by high brick walls on two sides, the space still has the usual functional requirements — a parking area and access to the front door. It also borders a long, thin driveway open to the public, which previously made it feel rather exposed.
Because the owners’ backyard is small and shady, they wanted this space to be the outdoor area where they could hang out, entertain and eat with a sense of privacy.
Hamilton Cody Garden Design
Photos by Julia Cody
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A family with two young daughters
Location: Southeast London
Size: About 56 feet (17 meters) wide and, at its shallowest, 32.8 feet (10 meters) deep; the house is an uneven h-shape
Designers: Julia Cody and Jane Hamilton of Hamilton Cody Garden Design
Landscape designer Jane Hamilton was responsible for the front yard’s original design for its previous owners, creating a simple space featuring decking and silver birch trees. “This meant we had a good structure in place already,” says Julia Cody, also a designer as well as Hamilton’s business partner.
Soft, lush planting defines the new design. This was more challenging in some places than others — against the brick wall opposite the house, for example, which is flanked by some of the silver birches. “It’s quite a high wall, and the trees are established, making it dry and shady, so it was quite tricky to plant here,” Cody says.
She and Hamilton chose a mix of shade-loving shrubs, ferns and grasses. Around and in front of the trees, they planted ‘Harzkristall’ bergenia (Bergenia ‘Harzkristall’), ‘Aztec Pearl’ choisya (Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’) and columbine (Aquilegia sp.). They also included ‘Jack Frost’ large-leaf brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’) for its silvery foliage. “They all thrive in shady areas, and the Aquilegia is a spring woodland flower,” Cody says.
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Kate Burt
This plan shows how the front yard is connected to the house and the backyard (not featured in this article). The white “h” shape is the house, and the green area at top right is the small, shady backyard.
The areas of green and the decking at the bottom of the plan are all part of the front yard. You can see why this was the focus for the clients, as the space is much larger and connects to the eat-in kitchen, on the left of the front door, and the living room on the right, beyond which there’s a decked eating area. Below that is a lounge area with an outdoor sofa.
A parking space is hidden behind greenery at the top of the driveway on the left of the front yard, while a long, decked path, just on the other side of that greenery, leads to the front door.
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Hamilton Cody Garden Design
The living room opens onto this sunny deck, which was still in good condition from Hamilton’s initial design, so they kept it. “It’s a good-quality cedar deck and has lasted really well,” Cody says. It’s clean-lined and good-looking, with narrow boards.
The planting plan is somewhat pared back in terms of color, featuring lots of grasses, white flowers and flashes of purple. In the foreground here, in the bed that separates the pathway to the front door from the decked dining area, soft lilac spikes of ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’) rise above the smaller purple flowers of ‘Rozanne’ cranesbill (Geranium ‘Rozanne’).
Across the deck, softening its edges, is Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra), as well as the tall kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa), which bears small white flowers.
Hamilton Cody Garden Design
This image shows the same view, but as seen from the other side of the path up to the front door, showing how the grasses and geraniums soften the edges.
Kate Burt
Looking across the path the other way, from the dining deck, you can see the family’s parking space. In time, as the planting matures, it will be further screened.
There’s also a public pathway overlooking the space, which stretches from the street right up to the car. So the designers also reshaped existing yew hedging (Taxus baccata) and planted Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) — “a good substitute for box,” Cody says — to further boost screening.
“We clipped [the hedging] into shapes, creating cubes and rectangles of different sizes,” Cody says. “It reflects the garden’s grid-like design, but in 3D form, which softens the effect. The hedging goes in blocks, so you have layers of hedging broken up, rather than one big section.” A solid wall of green enclosing the space could have felt overwhelming, she says.
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Hamilton Cody Garden Design
The brick walls behind the sofa, which form boundaries with other gardens, are topped with horizontal cedar slats. The birch trees here are underplanted with more Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra).
The delicate white flowers beneath the arching kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and mingling with the grasses in the left foreground are Bowman’s root (Gillenia trifoliata).
Hamilton Cody Garden Design
In the background, the clients’ dining area is visible through the windows. Next to it, painted blue, is the front door.
The approach to the house from the deck consists of sawn buff sandstone pavers cut into plank form (narrow but long). Between sections of paving, the designers laid small Scottish beach pebbles. “[This gravel] has a really soft edge,” Cody says. “The colors are also really soft, with no orange tones. It goes with most types of stone.”
Because the house has large windows, Cody and Hamilton felt it was important to bring the planting as close to the building as possible for seamless verdant views every day of the year.
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