Whetstone Biodiverse Garden

Project Description

This ½-acre natural garden in North London’s Whetstone is certainly a rare find in its size, seclusion and a naturalistic design, reconciling nature with native plants to sustain biodiversity for wildlife and well-being for a young family. Photos show the garden 1 year after planting.

When our clients appointed us in 2018 to redesign their large landscape garden, the 2,000-sqm forest was utterly neglected and unkempt. At its centre, in the most pivotal sunny position stood a rundown concrete tennis court. We designed a naturalistic garden, using only reclaimed natural materials with exclusively native plants, building it over 3 months during the UK’s hottest ever summer.

Renovations included a new patio, retaining wall and steps near the house, site terracing as the garden drops 10 metres top to bottom, a curved stone wall to bank the garden from the lower meadow, a tiled basketball court, sunken trampoline, circular stone firepit and a sinuous hardwood deck. Access was enabled by scoring a 100-metre narrow path through jungly vegetation from the centre of the garden to a side road, facilitating vehicular entry for mini-diggers and mini-skips.

Planting is mainly native, where we included Armeria, Anemone, Bugle, Bellflower, Dogwood, Foxglove, Ferns, Field maple, Geranium, Galium, Grasses, Guelder rose, Hemp agrimony, Hazelnut, Iris, Lily of the valley, Meadowsweet, Primula, Pasque flower, Purple Loosestrife, Rowan, Sea kale, Silver birch, Spindle, Rushes, Walnut, Willow & Yarrow.

The curved deck grounds the site, situated at centre left by the foot of an existing Ash tree, providing expansive views of the site, draped by a new, native Willow tree. Within the inversion, we made a round stone fire pit, where the two elements interact in shape.

Stone steps planted with native plants lead to the lower meadow, through two Spindle trees (Euonymus europaeus ‘Red Cascade’). By the basketball court, a stone bench spans the canopy of a large existing Oak tree, enjoying shade. By the tree, we planted dogwoods, silver birch, rushes and ferns.

Ornamental grasses include Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’, Calamagrostis epigejos, Deschampsia cespitosa, Deschampsia flexuosa, flanked, Luzula nivea & Stipa calamagrostis. We created crevices in the stone wall, incorporating shade-loving plants: 5 fern species, Bugle & 3 bellflower types.

In a site already containing a profusion of native species such as Hawthorn, Ivy, Holly, Ash, Oak & Hazelnut, extending this palette was ecologically a horticultural no-brainer. The new outdoor zones cater for every member of the family, including a teenager & 2 youngsters, cats & dogs. Trampoline bouncing, Basketball shooting, grass footballing and gathering by the firepit flames, there’s something for everyone, and most essentially plenty of biodiversity for the local urban biota.