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![[original drawing]](../design%20images/oldarticles/beforemap.jpeg)
Design
Plan
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Enclosed
on all four sides, a courtyard garden is an intimate, comfortable
and private outdoor room, and it's amazing how much you can
cram into the limited space if you are organised about the
way features, furniture and plants are arranged.
With
original brick walls on all four sides surrounding a Victorian
semidetached house, it is really important to use hard landscaping
materials which are sympathetic to the building.
Raised
planters or pots full of large, leafy shrubs, grasses and
perennials help to create a luxurious atmosphere.
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The
garden we are featuring this time had 'potential', as estate agents
would put it. We all know what that means - it was a grim, damp,
dark uninteresting hole full of grey gravel; the sort of gloomy
outlook that would have put many people off buying the house in
the first place.
But
not Maureen! Having restored the interior and created a beautiful
home, our client turned her attention to outdoors.
She
faced several problems:
*
The tiny space gave her just 40 square metres to play with, and
with no external access, all materials had to be brought through
the house. After several contractors refused to take on the paving
work because they weren't insured to traipse through the hall, Maureen
rolled up her sleeves and did a very creditable job herself!
* The
end section of the garden was a mass of old coal and builders' rubble,
in which nothing would grow. This is also the only spot which gets
sun - the rest of the garden is very shady, because of the surrounding
walls and large plants growing over from next door.
* A
large drain and another manhole cover had to be hidden.
* Storage
space was needed for 2 bikes.
* 2
resident cats had to be provided with a litter box.
* Maureen's
recurrent back problem meant that raised beds were needed for ease
of maintenance.
* 9/10
of the London slug population live in this garden (or so it seems)
and their main purpose in life is to devour all plant matter as
quickly as possible!
on
to the design >
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