These two gardens in Putney are next door to each other.

While the first garden was at the design stage, the neighbours asked us to design and build a new garden for them too. Normally, their only access would have been through their house, but the remodelling of the first garden gave them the opportunity to use its gated access and construct their garden at the same time, considerably reducing the disruption.

The gardens are quite different in layout: one is fairly traditional and follows a circular theme, while the other is more contemporary and rectilinear. The circular garden comprises two concentric circles, with the inner one featuring herbs and the outer one regular shrubs. It also features two beautiful, medium-sized olive trees, which gave the garden instant maturity.

Both gardens are quite small and blessed with a good deal of vertical surface area. This allowed for a good selection of climbers, including fragrant roses, jasmines and clematis, such as the evergreen Clematis armandii.