30 West Street

About 30 West Street

This west facing garden has been made in stages over the last eight years. The courtyard by the house has an outdoor kitchen and borders. The garden becomes gradually wilder as it reaches down to the River Lea at the bottom of the garden.

The main aim of the garden is to provide successional planting thought the seasons and flowers for the house as well as the bees and butterflies. It is wonderful to be able to experiment with plants. We have a minimal watering regime and those that don’t survive are out. The planting is a mix of romantic roses and naturalistic grasses and perennials – and is on the cusp of wild in some places. It is intended to attract bees but also to be low allergen for hay fever sufferers. It also has to be resilient to children’s ball games: they play with footballs, cricket balls and rugby balls so grasses are essential!

I have included river bank planting and plants suitable for dry shade under some large trees. The roses are tough and interplanted with salvias, nepeta and geraniums. I recently planted a successful low maintenance trial bed with hakonechloa, geraniums, alliums and thalictrums which seems to cope well without much water.

We are so lucky having the river in the garden which brings tranquility and calm, the kingfisher and pond skaters, and fun water activities for the kids who can kayak and go crayfishing.

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