Wimbledon Village Front Garden

This rather grand Edwardian house in Wimbledon Village needed an elegant front garden to improve its kerb appeal. The crazy paving was replaced with sawn Yorkstone and a low retaining wall dealt with the height difference. The clients asked for a palette of silvery-toned flowers amongst structural evergreen planting.

Clipped box balls anchor the raised beds year-round, giving the garden year-round structure long after the flowers have faded. Against this evergreen framework, drifts of Nepeta Walker’s Low and Lavandula angustifolia Hidcote spill over the brick wall onto the path, softening the hard landscaping and bringing a relaxed, informal note to what is otherwise a very ordered design. Iris Jane Phillips and Allium Purple Sensation punctuate the border in early summer, their strong, architectural forms holding their own against the low froth of nepeta below.

The planting was designed to perform across the seasons: white and green-flushed Tulipa Spring Green and Narcissus Thalia open the year in spring, giving way to iris and alliums in early summer, and finally to Echinacea purpurea Magnus, Echinops ritro Veitch’s Blue and Veronicastrum virginicum Album, which carry the garden through to late summer with their pink, blue and cream flower spikes. Ivy trained along the boundary wall ties the new planting back into the garden's older bones, while the sawn Yorkstone paving — laid in large, clean-edged slabs — gives the whole space a calm, contemporary finish that suits the formality of the house without feeling stiff.

The result is a front garden that reads as considered rather than fussy: structural enough to look good in winter, generous enough to feel abundant in summer, and built around a restrained palette of silvers, purples and whites that never competes with the handsome brick and stone of the house itself.

Old uneven crazy paving and scruffy overgrown shrubs dominated this front garden in Wimbledon Village. A scruffy front garden didn't suit this elegant Edwardian house in Wimbledon Village, redesigned by Jane Shankster Garden Design
Overgrown front garden with cracked crazy paving before renovation, Wimbledon Common The front garden before its redesign: uneven, cracked crazy paving, and overgrown shrubs and roses crowding a narrow path — the starting point for the transformatio
New sawn Yorkstone path and brick raised beds with alliums and iris after garden redesign The same front garden after redesign: a clean sawn Yorkstone path flanked by brick-edged raised beds filled with alliums, iris and catmint — the finished schem
Sawn Yorkstone patio bordered by a low brick wall with catmint, box balls and clipped yew in a Wimbledon Village front garden A generous sawn Yorkstone patio sits below a raised brick-edged border planted with drifts of Nepeta, clipped box balls and
Pink echinacea and blue globe thistle in a summer cottage-style border below a brick townhouse Echinacea purpurea and blue globe thistle Echinops create a naturalistic, pollinator-friendly display against the brick facade and sash windows of the hou
Purple catmint, lavender and iris spilling over a Yorkstone path edge in a Wimbledon front garden border Nepeta and lavender billow over the path edge alongside bearded iris and bronze phormium, creating a soft, romantic planting scheme that blurs t
Raised brick border with alliums, box balls and catmint above a Yorkstone path in a Wimbledon Village garden Drumstick alliums rise above clipped box balls and a haze of catmint in this raised, brick-edged border, photographed from the Yorkstone pat
White and green Spring Green tulips with box balls in a spring border against a brick wall Spring Green tulips emerge alongside neatly clipped box balls in a raised border, with ivy and climbers softening the brick boundary wall behind — an early-se
White tulips and narcissus among box balls in a spring border with ivy hedge backdrop Tall white tulips and narcissus punctuate a border of box balls, set against a dense ivy hedge and brick wall — a fresh, elegant spring planting for the front gard
Purple allium flower heads with white cow-parsley-like blooms along a brick path border Bold purple allium spheres stand above a froth of white umbellifer flowers, adding late-spring drama to the border that lines the Yorkstone path. Designed by Jan
Purple salvia and catmint with allium seed heads along a stone path edge Deep purple salvia mingles with catmint and the green seed heads of alliums along the path edge, showing the border's transition from late spring into early summer. Designed by
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