Dilip Lakhani
LATEST
Rockcliffe – The Nandi pool
Nandi floats in a rectangular pool surrounded with Cornus controversa variegata on each corner and placed in a sunken garden with a beautiful border of Iris sibirica ‘Silver Edge’. The low curved stone walls of the pool is covered in parts with beautifully green moss and the lawn is sharply clipped and carefully edged. A […]
Larkspurs in Cordoba
The tiered gardens of the Alcazaba have wonderful and a very full series of displays including this beautiful underplanting of annual larkspurs in pretty pastel shades under a large pomegranate edged with Buxus sempervirens. Larkspurs are a native European plant called Consolida and a close relative of the Delphinium. It was a very pretty display […]
A great replacement for box – Lonicera nitida
My favourite replacement plant for Common box has to be Lonicera nitida. It can take a good tight clipping and forms great shapes that hold up well. It is a species of perrenial shrub of the honeysuckle flower with insignificant flowers and is cometimes called box honeysuckle. The only trouble is that it can a […]
Westergasfabriek Park in Amsterdam
Seen on a trip recently, this is a wonderful private space with a stepped water course with a Japanese feel surrounded by massive ferns and Acer palmatums. The Westergasfabriek is a treat for all the senses. You can hear water flowing through the marsh ponds and watch as trains disappear behind the embankment. Many areas […]
Tulips in pots
These staggered pots of tulips in three rows in the greenhouse area at Rousham are fabulous. They are a selection of mid to late flowering types with a range of varieties including my favourite parrot tulips. The colour palette is restrained enough. Lilac to purple to violent plum and cream streaked with green. They […]
Tree and Rock
Whilst walking through a wooded area on the mostly wind swept and barren Island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, I saw this grouping of Birch trees and rocks. There is a simple coherence in the colour of the bark and the striations of the rocks. The composition has a balance that wouldn’t look […]
A rockery wall
I noticed this lovely naturalised grouping of sedums on a recent trip to Rousham. They had germinated and grown near the top of a wall above the door to entrance to the vegetable garden. Right plant in the right place – the position is dry, free draining, in full sun and the calceareous stones allow […]
Snail Creeper or vine
Thomas Jefferson called this plant “the most beautiful bean in the world. Cochliasanthus caracalla is it’s full name. This is a photograph of it growing in a high mountain village on the island of Amorgos in Greece. Its luxuriant foliage completely obscured the railings of a double fronted mansion and it was covered in these […]
James Lee Horner Floristry
James created this fantastic bunch of flowers for my mother at the Great Dixter Plant Fair in October. It reminded me of how a sharp and practiced artistic eye is essential in planting design and good combinations. The result is a floating, delicate and effervescent selection in pale pink and solf lilac with the most […]
Euphorbia dendroides in planting design
I spotted this wonderful plant on the Island of Amorgos in Greece. I would just love to use it in a modernistic garden design as a natural hedge of Euphorbia dendroides. This naturally occurring tree spurge was dessicated in high summer but the natural branch forms are beautifully exposed to create soft fringe to frame […]
Jekyll Garden Design on Lindisfarne
Gertrude Jekyll completed this pocket sized walled garden on Lindisfarne with Edward Lutyens. It is in an open wind swept site full of hunkered down planting surrounded by rough hewn stone walls and paving. The walled garden is designed to allow a good view from a height by using a curved front wall that dips […]
Chris Lewis Ceramics in a garden design
This fabulous ceramic bench was at an open house artist exhibition in Isfield. Chris Lewis produces these and garden pots and commisioned designs. The firing is only once a year in a wood burning kiln which produces ashes which then glaze the pots. This superb bench deserves a richly layered tropical garden design to complement […]
Pineapple Guava (Acca sellowiana)
This beautiful little evergreen tree always flowers without fail in a warm sunny courtyard in London. It’s a perfect choice for mediterranean garden design. The leaves are a furry soft green with a grey underside, the bark is a pale brown and the copious flowers are a real tropical delight. The local blackbird has discovered […]
Rudbeckia and Eryngium
A gorgeous combination of mid-summer flowers for a perrenial border garden design. They work so well with the height and flower shape combination. I particularly like the way that if you examine the Eryngium carefully, you notice the little blobs of yellow stamens which pick very subtly on the bright colour of the Rudbeckia.
Malus ‘Crimson Surprise’
On a recent trip to Gravetye Manor, the head gardener, Tom Coward, showed me the most wonderful apple variety – Apple ‘Crimson Surprise’. It is sweet, a wonderful red colour and ready to make a beautiful red tinged Cider. The skin is reddish tinged and the new shoots in spring are flushed with purple and […]
Bird boxes Hampton Court Flower Show 2015
A lovely series of rustic bird boxes with branches for easy attachment seen at HC . Perfect for getting the feathered friends to stay for a while
Fresh Gardens at Chelsea
The Fresh gardens category challenges garden designers to be brave and to step outside of what might be thought of as a traditional London Chelsea garden within a 3m x 3m area. There is no fixed brief which allows for an innovative approach and creative use of familiar and new materials. Inspiration for the design […]
A ‘non-designed’ London garden design
The National Garden Scheme persuades many private London gardens to open up for viewing by the paying public in support of a good cause. A recent visit to the garden at Nr. 51 The Chase in Clapham in South London was just fantastic. This garden had carefully placed design elements combined with the roughness of a lived-in garden. It reminded me how over-planned […]
Echeveria Elegans in Garden Design
I love this combination of the grassy plants with the chunky leaves. This pretty collection of terracotta pots in a London garden is planted up with a simple collection of only two varieties of plants. The planting design works because the grey-glaucous fleshy leaves of the Echeveria Elegans has a slight pinkish bloom which is […]
Belsize Park Road, London
A contemporary London garden with clean lines for an architect conversion. The garden is designed to require minimal maintenance, to provide a clear seating area and to match the design of the building works. Raised white walls and clean planting break up the flat site to give a rectangular ‘patchwork’ to the shapes which resonate […]
Holmes Road, London
This much neglected and unloved London site was designed to give a stopping point on a hard urban street which is next to the council depot. The brief was to create an urban green space for Camden Council to provide a green garden sanctuary for the local community and workers. Seating is by Robin Day as […]
Hendon Lane, London
A golden sandstone paving stone and raised walls of London stock complement this late Victorian London villa. A large garden lawn for children to play on gives way to the shady woodland walk with a wooden teepee. This follows onto an outdoor room for yoga and mediation surrounded by a hedgerow meadow in a blue, purple and pink […]
Inkerman Road, London
A very simple and elegant garden design of timber cladding for the rear of a Victorian refurbishment. The main planting areas are a raised oak timber sleeper bed with vibrant planting of multicoloured perrenials. The patio is laid with a pale blue-grey limestone and steps formed of poured and smoothed concrete with a modern and crisp finish.
Leighton Road, London
This is a London garden of many rooms. There is a restful seating and dining area surrounded by scented Mediterranean planting. The children have a play area including a play house and trampoline. The centre of the garden is designed to be tropical-looking and has a drought-tolerant planting scheme to provide the interest of flowering […]
Caversham Road, London
Soft white rendered and geometric curved seating with a rolled top detail on the raised beds provides an elegant solution to this rear terrace London garden. The inspiration came from holidays in the tropics and has an ecological planting style to match. A carefully pruned existing Eucalypt tree (Eucalyptus gunnii) in the centre of the […]
Lissenden Grove, London
A garden for a new house as part of the regeneration of this important square in Parliament Hill Fields in London. A new ecological and sustainable house by a private property developer and architect required a garden of clean and contemporary lines. The paving is of riven York stone and granite setts placed in intersecting bands with raised […]
Yoakley Road, London
The entire garden space in this London property has been rejuvenated and divided into three distinctly themed ‘rooms’ linked by use of form and colour. This included a planting scheme for new terraces, a new lawn and a gravel garden area. Planting includes bulbs for spring, herbaceous plantings for summer and a unifying structural element […]
Poets Road, London
A London garden inspired by an amazing carpet that the clients just loved and which has bands of colour. The garden gives year round colour. It utilises a simple floor plan of Cedgravel on a stabilisation matting (which keeps the gravel in place) and planting areas separated by gravel boards rescued from the old garden. Strips of planting […]
Caverley Grove, London
A garden inspired by the planting styles at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness and Chatto’s in Colchester. This London space has been transformed to provided a series of rooms that includes scented planting surrounding a new terrace and timber sleeper retaining walls. A shady planting scheme with three large Terracotta container provides the garden’s grand […]