Few landscape designers would admit to sketching the plan for a high-end property on the back of an envelope, but that’s what Matt Keightley presented to his clients on his first site visit to this garden, which, he says, almost designed itself.
Others may have struggled with the challenging wedge-shaped plot and windswept, hillside location overlooking the Cornish coast, but for Matt, it was a dream project, with clients Mike and Maeve supporting him all the way.
“The clients invited me down to Cornwall to advise them on how they could transform the rotting deck, rough grass and deep boundary hedge surrounding their property into a beautiful outdoor space, where they could host parties for friends and family, and enjoy the spectacular views,” explains Matt.
The couple had recently extended and renovated the house to include three glass-fronted balconies on the upper storey looking out towards the sea, and a separate garage, built at 90 degrees to the house, with a snug behind it, facing out on to the garden.
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“The snug is at the wide end of the wedge, and you step outside through large French doors at the mid-point, from the huge open-plan dining living and kitchen area. The garden then narrows towards the far end of the house,” says Matt.
“Mike and Maeve are very sociable and wanted to accommodate large numbers of people, so we had to include ample seating and dining areas,” he continues.
“They also asked for a Mediterranean look, to remind them of holidays in the sun, and Mike is originally from South Africa, so agapanthus, which grow wild there, were important, too.” Apart from these requirements, the couple left Matt with an open brief, although they struggled to imagine what he intended from his doodle on the envelope.
“The inspiration was the Mediterranean, and I envisaged gnarled olive trees creating sculptural focal points to frame views and separate the different spaces,” he says. “I also wanted to create a seamless transition from the house to the garden, and used limed oak composite decking to complement the neutral tones of the floors and furnishings in the house.”
The decking replaced the lawn and created level surfaces for a dining table and sofas and chairs, while the original 2m-deep Griselinia hedge was trimmed back to just 1m, opening up more space for the design. “I kept the evergreen hedge because it creates a beautiful leafy backdrop, and provides essential protection from the wind that whips along the coast,” says Matt.
“The olives were absolutely critical to the design and had to be just right, and the clients had to be happy with them, too, so Mike and I flew out to Spain to select them. We choose five trees that must be about 500 years old, and I just prayed that they would survive the journey to Cornwall and be happy once established in the garden.”
The inspiration was the Mediterranean, and I envisaged gnarled olive trees creating sculptural focal points to frame views and separate the different spaces
Matt planted one of the trees in a rectangular bed directly outside the glass-fronted living room, underplanting it with grasses, agapanthus, ballota, Stachys byzantina and dwarf pines, to create a living sculpture that can be admired from both inside and out. Another olive screens the hot tub and shower next to the snug, while the tree on the back boundary helps to punctuate the division between the dining and seating areas. Two more olives mark the entrance to the front of the house.
“The olives settled in well initially, but then went into shock and dropped their leaves. It was a nerve-wracking moment, but after pruning them hard and feeding them with seaweed fertiliser, they bounced back,” he says. They have now acclimatised and should thrive in the mild, almost Mediterranean conditions in Cornwall, where winter temperatures rarely dip below 4°C.
The key to the design’s success is its simplicity
Visitors to the garden walk out of the house onto the deck, flanked by the olive tree bed on one side and a timber-framed veranda beneath the balconies to the right, where Mike and Maeve can relax in the shade on hot summer days. Taking a left, the dining area, with its long oak table and benches, stretches out before you, cocooned by the protective hedging, trees and mixed planting.
The alternative route towards the snug takes you down a step into a lounge area, with a central firepit set on porcelain pavers, also cradled by planting. This leads on to an oak pergola framing the entrance to the snug, with a barbecue, sunken hot tub and outdoor shower set alongside the building, behind a planting bed. “I’ve trained Trachelospermum up the oak pergola, where the flowers’ rich fragrance wafts on the breeze as the clients and their guests relax on the sofa and chairs,” says Matt.
I wanted to create a seamless transition from the house to the garden
The balconies on the first floor, which offer spectacular views, and dressed very simply with containers filled with pheasant’s tail grass (Anemanthele lessoniana), fleabane, rosemary and agapanthus, reflecting the planting in the garden below.
“The key to the design’s success is its simplicity,” says Matt. “While there’s lots of space for entertaining, the bold planting throughout helps to bed the large house into its surroundings, softening the architecture and offering interest throughout the year. As well as the structural plants, I’ve included pops of seasonal flower colour, with perennials such as gaura (Oenothera lindheimeri), Centranthus ruber and Erigeron karvinskianus, which flowers almost all year here. I did a recce of the local area to see which plants were thriving and took my cue from that.”
Matt says that Mike and Maeve are delighted with their new garden. “It took a while to plan and install, but everything has come together, just as they wanted, and they can’t quite believe that my crude sketch has materialised into their ideal outdoor space.”
Designing an awkwardly shaped space
Matt says that even if your garden looks like a cheese wedge, you can use the angles to your advantage. Follow his tips to make the most of your irregular-shaped outdoor space
- Draw the outline of the garden on squared paper and divide it up into areas with regular shapes that will be easier on the eye. Here, Matt set the plan on a grid, with a series of interconnected rectangles forming the dining and seating areas, and hot tub and shower area.
- Set your main seating areas where people will view the garden along its longest axis, which will make it look and feel bigger.
- Level up uneven ground with decking that can be built up to create usable surfaces.
- Disguise irregular-shaped boundaries with planting beds around your outdoor rooms. Here, Matt used a set of triangular beds, with the longest side along the hedge and the other sides facing into the garden, and forming two edges of the rectangular rooms.
- Including a step from one area to another will make the garden feel larger and help to define each room.
- Lightweight furniture makes the garden more flexible, as it allows you to move it around to different areas throughout the day, and bring in temporary furniture to accommodate more people for large gatherings.
- Tuck barbecues and other bulky items into the corners behind tall planting, so that they are not immediately on view from the house.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Find out more about Matt Keightley’s work at rosebanklandscaping.co.uk