What makes a town garden feel like a true green oasis? Top London garden designers, Charlotte Rowe and Tomoko Kawauchi of Charlotte Rowe Garden Design, show us how the smallest details – in the paving, pathways and seating areas – can completely transform a space.
This family garden has no lawn, but it has something far more interesting – layers of design detail that turn it into a journey of hidden seating areas and evolving spaces.
00:00 A quick tour of a gorgeous town garden designed by Charlotte Rowe Garden Design
00:27 Charlotte Rowe Garden Design: https://www.charlotterowe.com/
00:57 Use the same bricks, stone or pavers repeatedly and interweave them
01:26 The principles – where to start with garden design
02:17 Create a journey in the garden
03:13 How to deal with different levels in a garden
07:48 What are the best materials for paving and terracing
10:18 The important thing about steps in gardens
12:21 Deciding the planting
13:12 Add multi-stem trees to town gardens
13:24 Tips on choosing garden furniture
14:36 What you need to know about choosing an arbor
16:00 Designing a front garden
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What makes a town garden a magical oasis? The
answer, surprisingly, can be that it’s in the details. I’ve been talking to two top London
garden designers about how the materials that you choose, your paths, your terraces, your
arbours, can make all the difference and show off your planting. It’s Alexandra here from The
Middle-Sized Garden YouTube channel and blog. And I’ve been talking to top garden designers
Tomoko Kawauchi and Charlotte Rowe of Charlotte Rowe Garden Design. They’re showing us around a
town garden that they’ve designed. It has lush contemporary planting and is in a series of three
gardens. There’s a front garden, a side garden, and a steeply sloping back garden. There’s no lawn
at all. It’s a series of private seating areas, linked by garden paths that create a journey
through the garden. And it’s the details that make it special. Note how the bricks and the
pavers and the stackers all work together. They’re interwoven, and they’re repeated
throughout the garden to give it a sense of harmony and calm. And it’s also a garden
built to evolve. That trampoline will turn into a fire pit when the children have decided that
they’re no longer interested in the trampoline. So, it’s a sign of how thoughtful garden
design can really adapt to family life. So, Charlotte and Tomoko, tell me what you think
about when you first come to a garden, what the most important principles are – Charlotte.
Well, in general, obviously the functionality and how the family will use the garden is really
important. But also the shape, space, location, borrowed landscape – those things are really
important as well. But when I first came here, this was a completely different garden. It had
been used as a family garden. It had a trampoline. It had, you know, a sort of climbing frame type
thing. It had barriers – you couldn’t see the end of the garden. It had, a really large part
of it was lawn. And they just weren’t using the garden. They weren’t coming up into the garden.
So, as soon as I saw it, I knew we had to open the garden up and make it enticing. So one of the
things we always think about is a journey within the garden. Do you agree with that? Yes. That’s
one thing we are known to input is a circulation, we call it, and more access to one destination is
better to enhance your experience in the garden. So can you tell me how you do that with paths and
patios and terraces. So once you have one patio location decided, you need to decide which way
you want to access and allow a few routes to it, and then you select what is the most interesting
journey we can create. This is not a small garden, it’s a medium size London garden – by no means is
it small. It’s a very wide gardens – that was the other thing – it’s not a long garden. So you have
to – when you’re doing that – at the same time you have to think about how you make the garden look
as big as it can look. It’s very important. And we’re really good at breaking spaces up and making
them look bigger. So functionality, journey, destination, access, circulation, location,
and size. So how do you deal with the different levels – Tomoko? Different level. So you need
to decide the functionality – comes first – and then what level you want to, for example, you
want to use this dining space – at what level, sitting at what level – because it depends on the
level you get – the sound level or light level change it. So you need to be aware of surroundings
and where would you feel most comfortable. So before you change any levels or do anything
with levels, you have to decide where the patio, where the terrace, where….? Exactly, location
is so important. We rarely make the garden without deciding the purpose of the space. Sometimes we do
get a brief that there was to be flexible dining and sitting area. But we normally decide at the
very early on stage, this is where you sit, this is where you eat. Depending on things like light,
location, how it fits with the kitchen. So for example at the moment we’re sitting in the arbour
– the old arbour used to be the other side of the garden – but we felt this was the right place to
be, plus we were putting a fireplace in here. And going back to the levels, a decision was also made
that although this garden did cost quite a lot of money, one way you can save is by not changing
the levels too much. You need to try and keep what you’ve got on site, because as soon as you
– in London particularly – as soon as you start removing stuff you’re paying for waste. There’s a
waste management issue. There’s cost involved. So the decision was made to keep the levels, not
exactly as they were before, but sort of more or less, and working with those levels. Because if
you…..a lot of people when they go into gardens, both clients and designers, say “oh right, we’re
going to kind of completely hollow this out, you know, and create all one level”. No, that’s going
to not work. We encourage people not to change the levels. Yeah, we are quite strong about that
because a client could waste so much money just making the ground – and you get very boring space.
I think it’s nice to have a….We had one client years ago who didn’t really understand gardens
– you remember who it is – in North London, and a lot of gardens in North London are really
steeply sloping because it’s high in Hamstead and Finchley etc. in Golders Green. So usually, often
the garden goes up away from the house. And this particular client just wanted to take the whole
level down. Now we’re talking about a 3 to 4 meter change in levels. It’s a lot. It would have ended
up being like a volleyball or a squash court, with no light, because of course as soon as you
take yourself down in a garden, you’re losing light- particularly in an enclosed London or town
space. So we fought that very strongly. In the end we finally decided to compromise on about a
third of the garden being pushed back. A lot of architects just have, you have a patio come out of
the house – particularly in Regency houses where they’re again quite narrow and long and go up –
have a patio, then have this massive staircase up to the next level with no planting. So the garden
is moving further and further away from the house. Whereas here, as you’ll see when you walk around,
this has been done in a completely different way with ramping. Do you want to talk about those
a bit? So this ramping in the middle area, we have a large planting. But the idea was this
group of plants flow into the terrace space. So almost invading into the stone area. So more
hard surface. So the softness comes on like flat almost. This is very important. A lot of people
just think that landscape or garden designers just do planting. Well, there are a few television
programs showing people who do that. Tomoko is a former architect and I come from the architectural
side as well. And that’s not to say the planting is not important – it is. But the structure,
the bone structure of the garden is the key thing. It’s what we’re probably well known for. If
all this planting died, it would be awful shame. But you could then replant it and you still got a
really good space. You cannot make a space out of planting. It’s just not possible, particularly in
a town garden. You can more in a country garden, of course, but here you have to have
some structure to create that feel. So, as I say, when you walk in here, you go, “Wow!”
at the planting. And it is amazing. It’s quite, it’s almost invasive. It’s fantastic. But the
planting wouldn’t be this planting at all without having the areas of gravel, these little patches
of gravel within the paving, the fireplace, the arbour, the beautiful benches. It wouldn’t
be the same without those. And how do you decide what materials to use for paving and terracing?
Yeah, so that’s a very good question. This garden originally had a very dark stone – am I right
saying that? It was porcelain. Very different feel to it. Yes. Porcelain – it’s not even a
stone. So first thing is you need to understand what is client looking for, what mood, and this
client was looking for a big change from a quite masculine garden to softer and more feminine I
suppose. So we chose a much brighter, lighter, buff colour stone, and from porcelain into stone
– so more natural material. A lot of town gardens go straight off a kitchen or a family room. So,
we have to make it work with that. And so, we do use grey stone actually. If there’s a clear grey
spectrum going on inside – a palette of colours inside. But the beige is a softer look. It’s more
natural. And actually, this is English limestone from Wiltshire, which is really local, which
is nice. And is there any particular material that’s best for, or materials that are best for
paths, patios and terraces? We like to use natural stone and gravel. We use a lot of gravel. Some
clients don’t like it because it doesn’t do their stilettos much good. Or barefoot. Or barefoot,
that’s the other thing. So, we tend to slip paving into the gravel if we can. But some people just
won’t have gravel. But we like it because it’s eco, it’s less expensive, it’s readily available
and it’s really beautiful. But we don’t use porcelain if we can help it. And we do a bit of
decking sometimes, but not much. And what about choosing gravel? What do we need to know if we’re
choosing gravel? I think you need to choose the stone first, or whatever the majority of the floor
surface is going to be. Then match the gravel after. Yeah. This one, I think, is it Cotswold
buff this one? Yeah, I think so. And we put the stone in first and then we match the gravel to
it. We choose similar tone, very neutral colours gravel. We don’t rarely make contrast between
stone and the gravel. We used to when we started out actually. Yeah, I think it’s a similar colour
works better. We want to still keep the one plane of the terrace – for example this terrace has got
a few gravel pockets. We don’t want to make it too much contrast. And when it comes to steps, what
are the important thing to remember about steps? Riser and going thread steps, because in the
outside area you need a deeper and more gentle step up, while architects tend to do – inside
the houses – it’s fine – you need a higher or shorter step, but in the external area you really
need to be generous. This is for safety reasons, because of falling over. So our steps are much
less shallow. I mean, it won’t mean much to you, but anyone watching this who understands what
we’re talking about, the deepest height, the highest height we would do is 170, 180 in a pinch.
But we prefer to do 130 to 150. We’re all taught that. I mean, every landscape designer is taught
that. Architects don’t sympathize with that. And sometimes they’ve designed the steps out from a
house, it’s a nightmare. Do you remember the one in Putney we did? It was literally like that. It’s
just so dangerous. And it was in porcelain. And the other thing that’s really important – I know
it sounds so basic, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t do it – they must be identical
heights and treads. Any flight of steps has to be. It’s so important. But you’d be amazed what
builders come in “Oh yeah, I’ll do your garden for you”, and stick, you know, stick some steps in.
And one’s, you know, that high, next to that one. It’s so dangerous. Really dangerous. And anything
else we need to know about steps like what the best material to use is at all? Well stone.
Stone, you can do decking, or metal. Metal grills are quite nice because it let the lights through
it. Also you can see the plant underneath. Well, these ones are gravel with a metal edging done
with steel. So that’s just – we wanted it – we didn’t want it too hard. It’s a wider space, a
wider step, that also acts as a planting shelf. Yeah. So as you – there is planting in the stairs
– which is again something we do quite a lot. And speaking of the planting, how have you done that?
I think because it’s a wide big planting space, it’s very important to give a structure, but also
difference in height, and contrast in texture. In that way you don’t create a big blob of grey. You
need some punctuation and movement and colours. You need to have the same colour going through.
For example, this garden’s got a deep purple – way through at the punctuation of the colours. And
some actually some yellows were out earlier. They’re not out now. The grass is coming up in
amber. Just so you know, this garden had these trees around the outside, the pleached trees. They
were here already. We left them because they were so established. So was the liquid amber that was
here, and actually the avalanche. So we only put in a couple of trees here which is unusual for us
because we normally put quite a lot of trees in. We’re very pro multi-stem focus feature trees in
London gardens, because they really give interest. And when it comes to the furniture, there’s some
lovely furniture in this garden. What would you advise people to think about when they’re choosing
garden furniture? Well, don’t buy cheap furniture because it’ll fall to bits. It’s the first thing.
I’m afraid outdoor furniture is quite expensive. People’s views have changed on furniture. When
we started the business, people were still buying just cheap table and, you know, nice chairs. And
it was quite difficult to persuade people to buy continental mainland European furniture, but they
are now. But when it comes to colours and texture, we always recommend clients go for something
neutral, because the things that – if you go too much of a striking colour – it might go
out of fashion or trend. Although clients, they might not like it a few years later. This
kind of furniture is quite very comfortable, and you can take all the cushions inside,
although they can stay outside as well. I think the volume of the furniture against volume
of the space is so important. So do you think that the problem is that sometimes people choose
furniture that’s too small for the space? Oh yes, completely. And pots. It’s a real problem, and so
we always recommend really large – particularly in small spaces – you’ve got to have large things,
which people don’t really understand. And what about arbours? Well one of the problems we have
is sometimes people want it completely covered. That then starts being more than an arbour – it
starts becoming a building. And then you’ve got to start thinking about how the water’s going to
run off, and what it’s going to look like from upstairs. You wouldn’t sit out here in a storm,
but you would sit out here in a drizzle. It wouldn’t be a problem. And it certainly gives
you shade cover. You could put glass on it, but it’s not really advised. And we have
specified a few off-the-shelf ones, haven’t we? But we tend to design all these. And this is
a lovely western red cedar – a beautiful arbour. It casts lovely shadows. It looks natural. And so
do you think that a garden should have an arbour, or are there are some gardens….? No, no, no. We
don’t. If you can create enough interest in height by trees, that’s obviously….most gardens we do
don’t have arbours. We try and push people away from them actually. It’s quite a lot of money.
This one, this garden can cope with it. Plus, we’ve got a fireplace. So, it actually makes a
destination. And the owners of this garden, their first winter, they had their Christmas outside
here in front of the fire, which is lovely – in the middle of the winter. But if you put an arbour
too close to the windows, it’s bad news, isn’t it? Lots of shade. It works here. It sort of creates
a spot for you. It’s like on its own temple and it frames the view. If you look out anywhere, every
view is a frame. And what about front gardens? Because this is a beautiful front garden. What do
people have to bear in mind when they’re thinking about a front garden? You know, front garden is
a slightly different game, because you have to think with a front of the house as a background.
So, it needs to go with a style of the house. We tend to go less modern, more traditional, to
go with the period of the house was built. And also there’s a thing called the SuDS rules about
drainage, which in London is crucial because of all the flooding issues there have been over the
last few years. So in other words – it depends from borough to borough – but you have to make
a large portion of a front garden permeable and free draining, and it’s really important. We do
obey that, because we believe it’s true, and it’s important. And that’s one of the problems – that
you know the stones that are the stone pavings, that are free draining and permeable, are not very
nice. So here we were very lucky because actually the garden is large and it’s not the driveway. So
it’s more challenging when you’ve got a garden in London with a two-way driveway, because you’ve
got to combine it and make it look beautiful but accommodate cars. But of course this one has got
its own separate garage because there’s….this garden, this house is unusual. It’s in its own
site. It’s a detached house which in central London is unusual. So we’ve actually got here the
main garden. We’ve got the side passage which is also got planting in it. We’ve got what we call
the side garden next to the garage which was never used before – it’s just a plain bit of grass – and
then the lovely front garden, and we replanted and repaved that. We didn’t do that from scratch. So.
Lovely. And is there any other advice about design detail that you would give to people when they’re
thinking about designing their garden? Keep it simple. Yeah, I agree. Keep it simple. Don’t do a
twirly whirly decorative details, because design detail should speak to the design concept itself.
If your garden is contemporary design style, the detail should follow that style. And we tend
to do rectilinear designs, in rectilinear spaces. I mean not always; we have introduced curbs
occasionally, but generally speaking we reserve curves and flowing lines – in the hard landscaping
– to country gardens, because it really really tests the space if you have curves and circles and
ovals – which we do occasionally, in a rectangular space, which is a limited space. So we tend
to design in rectilinear manner, which – not everybody likes that – but we introduce the
softness with the planting. Because we don’t do hard planting – we do quite soft planting,
if that makes sense. It does. It does. If you’re interested in transforming your garden, then don’t
miss Charlotte and Tomoko’s five top garden design tips, and two mistakes to avoid, coming up
next. And thank you for watching. Goodbye!
47 Comments
I love your videos! How do you get interviews with these incredible designers? Well done.
I've watched a lot of your videos recently as I've just purchased a cottage with a garden that needs some love! This video was great, lots of really useful insight which I'll put to use, thank you!
As always, great informational video ! Thank you for sharing.
I covet that garden more than any at this year's Chelsea flower show. Absolutely beautiful. So many tips and ideas for designing my garden. Many thanks
The beautiful garden speaks volumes about the skill of these designers. Thank you for this interview!
Great video.
I really appreciated the nugget of information at the very end where they talked about the difficulty of designing curving spaces and walkways in a rectangular space.
My lot is very rectangular, with some existing hardscaping in very straight lines, I have had a hard time figuring out how to incorporate curves into the garden design and paths, and now I know I don’t have to worry about the idea that I need “winding pathways & curves”.
"What makes a town garden feel like a true green oasis? "
———- I think the thing that matters most is the entire absence of any evidence of family, friends, children, or pets. And, especially all the neighbouring yards – the same.
Such a gorgeous garden. Thank you Alexandria
I really appreciated this episode, and especially the good tips about dos and don'ts when planning your garden. Thank you!
I am doing a garden at my cafe and this has given me more food for thought. Thank you
Great garden. Lovely interview. Interesting garden designers. ❤
One thing is a pity: it is impossible to get a sense of the fundamental layout of this garden and how it relates to the house.
Wow. Top notch interview and garden. My mouth is watering.. Since my garden design is definitely lacking interest I will watch this video a few time to see if I can understand how to incorporate their professional advice into my garden.
This was a great episode. I have a very boxy and rectangular property that I have been trying to build my garden in. It does seem to like curves in the backyard, but in front it seems to want more squared off areas. it's a 1957 midcentruy modern home with large widows in square, rectancular, and agled off edges. Still and work in progress and your channel has been a go-to inspiration place for my garden dreams for three years now. Thank you so much Alexandra.
So beautiful 😊
Wow, what a transformation!
Great advice, and beautiful garden. I love the advice of orthogonal structure soften by selective planting. It's the best of both worlds from a design and maintenance point of view. Also a garden arbour away from the house is a solid suggestion.
Wow thank you once again for taking time to bring this information to your avid subscribers. Also thank you to the owners of this London home. I know this time the emphasis is on hard rather than soft landscape it's quite hard to look at something like hard landscaping when your mind keeps going to the plants. Interesting now that box blight is endemic across London to see a strong eastern Asian influence here with topiary combined beautifully. This garden does shout as the lady says ' cost a lot of money' . I and I'm sure many will be very envious but haven't got the budget . I hope my thoughts will help those cash strapped like me. The main low growing grass is hakonechloa macra easy to grow from seed , hydrangea paniculata flowers summer to autumn , erigeron karvinskianus which is an easy self seeder , three small silver birch jacquemontii planted close together would give a multi stemmed look and much cheaper than buying a multi stemmed one, geranium Roxanne and the willow salix Integra hakuro nishiki trimmed into a ball shape for topiary this is also easy to take cuttings of. I hope this helps anyone start to create this look whether you dig up the lawn and replace with buff gravel and buy cheap furniture depends entirely I'm afraid on the bank balance. Another lovely interview which has really driven ideas . Many thanks.
I thoroughly enjoy your interviews, Alexandra. You ask all the questions I would ask about details, practicality, etc and you let people speak uninterrupted.
This garden is a triumph. Thanks for sharing.
Delightful. Thank you.
Great ideas, and a really well-designed garden. This must be a gem in London to have this much space.
Master class right here…not only in garden design but in innovative and thoughtful dialogue with architectural landscaping experts, as well. Thank you MG, wonderful show🙏
It takes me 30-40 minutes to mow my grass – I can't call it a lawn. I'd love to have no grass but I'd need to win the Lottery in order to do a makeover like this one. Sigh.
What a wonderful garden, and a really really lovely and interesting interview. Thanks so much for your work.
I’m afraid I don’t like the boxy, functional and contemporary look of the stonework. The designers have attempted to soften this by their planting but to me the overall look is messy and lacking structure.
How many London gardens are as big as this? There’s not many useful tips I can take away from this clip to apply in my own garden though I’m impressed by the designers patter and pitch and can see why they attract very wealthy clients.
Honestly, I wouldn't like many things in that garden, too modern for me, not enough colour. Not romantic enough. But the tips they gave are universal and applicable. I loved their insights. It's always so valuable to listen to new info and not only things you like. You might learn something. Thank you designers and Alexandra ❤
A very beautiful garden. It would cost my lifetime salary to recreate it! Maintaining that picture of perfection is beyond my comprehension. I do agree with using natural stone and complementary gravel. I can see a huge wave of grey porcelain in every neighbouring garden from my upstairs windows. Apart from it looking very artificial and bathroom like, it is a terrible slip hazard in winter.
Its gorgeous!!!
before and after is a remarkable change and i like it, but…from low maintenace to seemingly high maintenance, that would be a negative for me, i also believe if function requires a few curves for example for a path then its ok regardless if the garden is square, rectangular, because we walk in directions of efficiency not based on plan drawings, having said all that, its a beautiful garden that i would definitely enjoy being in and i have certainly picked up some pointers and got reassurance for my own garden ideas and executions❤
Great interview, thank you, Alexandra✨
It is a beautiful area and design, Alexandra, I have garden envy, but it's very heavy on maintenance and although those paths and steps look lovely with all the plants breaking up the hardness of stone, they are a trip hazard and not really practical for many with the flowers and long blades of grass trailing across them, not to mention the gravel. I expect you agree? Hilarious that the designers only mention the rise of steps being a hazard. 🤣Wonderful though if someone capable of spending hours keeping it under control or can employ a knowledgeable gardener. All the grasses though! Not great for those with pets because of the hazard of seeds penetrating the skin, eyes, and ears of pets. I would certainly love the garden though, with a few changes so I don't end up breaking my neck. 🤣 I do love the natural look of plants dominating everything, the back-to-wild look.
Very inspirational and practical advice ❤
Thanks for showing us one of the most beautiful gardens and introducing us to the designers.
Loved this video – they are both so talented and focused in creating elegant, and yet functional spaces!
Beautiful garden. Thanks so much for sharing and giving so many tips and ideas.
Loved the conversation about rectangular shapes in the garden at the end!
That was great, I follow Charlotte on Insta so very pleased to see her here. Now following Tomoko too, both incredible designers 👌
And how much is a garden like this??? Would highly appreciate to show nice gardens of average people. Something that can be achieved by the majority of gardeners who are not rich.
This is one of the best garden design videos that I have ever seen. Though a modern (and gorgeous) design, the principles apply to any garden style. Bravo!
To contact Charlotte Rowe Garden Design, see: https://www.charlotterowe.com/ and for more garden design insight, here's the previous video we shot with Charlotte & Tomoko: '5 top garden design tips + 2 mistakes to avoid! 'https://youtu.be/HtsqXEMeocM
Great video !
Really enjoyed this conversation — and the garden! 😍
Love this garden. Learned so much. Beautiful!!
What a really well done interview and garden. Thank you!
Thank you for another great video and interview. My criticism is of the designers. The "levels" idea is great, as are their insights generally. And while I can respect their efforts and will say that, overall, it is a sophisticated and expensive looking re-do, I find Charlotte Rowe's attitude, especially toward a past client she mentions, condescending. I don't mean to be rude, especially as you mention you have known her a long time. It's just that I find some of her commentary slightly off-putting unlike so many of your other guests who come across amazingly down to earth (as you yourself do). But maybe that's the norm among designers, especially those who feel they need to make a point that they *come from architecture*.
About the garden itself, I disagree with their assertion that it succeeds in being more feminine, as their client wished. It feels to me rather the opposite, with their admitted preference for rectilinear elements and the way they've introduced so many corners and hard stone/metal surfaces to navigate on and around. How can they say that all the "invasive"-feeling plantings actually soften everything up when they've purposely built up all those hard edges underneath which need softening. Maybe they pushed this client in a particular direction as they did with the past client — since it's the designers and not the clients who really understand gardens, as they say.
One speficic thing that could potentially become a serious problem over time is the steel edging on the steps. Settling or shifting of the gravel could cause a person to stumble over that thin edge as they are walking down. And the designers speak about functionality in the garden and even the basic safety concerns when considering the rise and run of steps! ("You see, we come from architecture but are safety-conscious unlike your typical architect who only wants to put in slippery porcelain — remember that one in Putney? — dear God!") I just imagine if the homeowner wife trips one evening while entertaining, whether or not any injury was caused, she would not be thinking this was a more feminine upgrade when solid stones or pavers could have been used for the steps. Just this husband's opinion.
And what's with the big built-up planted area ("invading" they say!) in the middle of the whole thing, that you can't walk or look through? A waste of so much space, even in a larger garden like this, just for the client to show they have money to burn on a high end designer.
Excellent video as always. When the designers spoke of height of the risers (130-150), what measurement system were they referring to? I've started gardening last year and enjoying sketching landscape designs since no one could figure out what to do with my yard. Want to ensure it can be executed by landscape contractors I hire or future customers. Thank you! Boston avid watcher & fan
Stunning