This lovely client got in touch as they had an all-too-common challenge. Living in Southeast London, parking was an issue, there was a dropped curb outside the front garden, offering the ability to park in front of the house, that wasn’t being used because they didn’t want to ruin what the garden looked like. We wanted to create something beautiful that enhanced the period property, but could also, on occasion be parked on.

We managed to create a garden that it was good to be driven on. The ability to park the car when there were no spaces or when the children came to stay, that remained visually as a garden. We found a contractor who would create a bi folding picket fence and create a hard standing to take the weight of the car, without it looking like a drive. It looked like a beautiful landscape that not only provided greenery and a warm welcome, but the all-year-round planting scheme created colour and softened all the hard edges of an urban period property.

The multi layered perennial planting was tall enough to frame the period property where we needed to create privacy and at the same time, low enough between where the cars wheels would go, that they would be not get upset by the occasional car parking. Breaking up the hardstanding in a visually interesting way.

The overall effect was of a gracefully naturalised landscape that didn’t have the appearance of a drive. All the while having the hidden engineering to facilitate the ability to take the stress out of finding a space to park.

Project Manager: Mark Holman