How do you design a garden so that it doesn’t look professionally designed? New York designer Brook Klausing shows us how with this smart terrace in Chelsea.
The client didn’t want it to look like a garden designer did the job so we wanted to keep it loose.
We used wide and different width decking boards and moved the deck straight up to the bench. A little blackened steel in behind the bench created a mini green roof and we placed one large tree planter next to the bench. This green roof allowed us to borrow the canopy of the park that sits across the street, allowing our space to look bigger. The green roof itself is filled with lavender and other fun grasses and loose plantings.
The space was narrow so we opted to flank the sides with lots of random pots but not in rows. We wanted a randomness that felt developed over time. All the neighbours’ pergolas had legs and took up too much space, so we opted to brace off the roof with cabling.
A weeping cherry is the main tree and we balanced out the sides with some heavy boxwoods mixed with lighter looking smoke bush and oak leaf hydrangea. Wisteria and roses grow up the edge of the pergola and fence. Lots of small perennials surround bigger shrubs to step it down in the middle.
You can visit Brook’s website here for more details of his work and other projects.
To see even more beautiful gardens, visit our Real Gardens page.
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IshitaUnblogged
Came into F&F through Things we make and I am so overwhelmed… How beautiful this Chelsea garden is. We live in an apartment with a tiny terrace – feeling absolutely down. but but but – maybe I’ll just visit this site whenever I need a garden!