Reviving an Overgrown Urban Garden with Modern Design
WRITTEN BY BLAKE MILLER / PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER SCHIAZZA
When Adolfo Harrison first walked into his clients’ backyard, he wasn’t fazed. After all, the landscape architect was accustomed to being tasked with overhauling a home’s landscape design even if that meant tackling a completely overgrown backyard. “Their yard was a bit overgrown, yes,” laughs Harrison, founder of his London-based eponymous landscape architecture firm. But the seasoned landscape designer could look past the weeds and through the overgrown grasses and dead plantings to see that this particular lot had serious potential.
Located in the London Borough of Hackney in England, the plot of land off the back of the row house was the ideal shape, says Harrison. “Unlike most backyards, which are oftentimes rectangular, my clients’ was square,” he explains. “That lent itself to a more fluid design. It made it easier to bring in circular movement with multiple focal points. This makes it less likely for the gaze to escape and look up towards the neighbors.”
The goal of the space was simple: “To create a floriferous garden that my clients could entertain in and forget that they lived in the city.” With neighbors seemingly on top of one another in an urban setting such as his clients’ home, privacy was key to the backyard’s design. Achieving that level of intimacy for everyday gathering and entertaining was no small task for a city dwelling. But Harrison was excited for the opportunity. “I knew we could be really creative with this canvas,” he says.
Once Harrison and his team analyzed the site and “how we wanted the movement to work around the space, we knew we needed a strong, geometric spine connecting A to B with plantings to achieve a fluidity that’s counter to that strong geometric spine.” The backyard would be divided into fifths: two terraces and three gravel gardens. A land bridge made from treated, soft wood became the spine Harrison was looking for. “It accentuated the idea of the landscape as a fluid, natural space that always existed, highlighting the tension between the manmade and nature and the respect the clients had towards it,” he explains.
What filled in between the land bridge was a gravel walkway. “A gravel garden is an incredible thing,” says Harrison of the hardscape choice. “It’s great because it’s effective in a design point of view helping to delineate areas and give them purpose. It’s also the least expensive way to create a garden as it doesn’t require an irrigation system.” Coupling the land bridge with the gravel meant softening the landscape design with plantings, both annual and perennial. “We chose a planting strategy of plants based on their form and texture that could cohabit and complement each other,” says Harrison. “These were then planted everywhere to bring rhythm to the garden and keep the eye moving. For example, thymes for ground cover, Russian sage for spires, Alliums for circular shapes and Achilleas as umbellifers.”
Landscape lighting and LED lights on the underside of the land bridge provide a magical experience in the backyard—“it almost feels like the land bridge is floating,” he says—that also boasts the privacy the homeowners longed for. “This backyard is perfect for entertaining now,” says Harrison. “You almost wouldn’t know you were even in the city.”
Mission accomplished for Harrison who worked tirelessly for six to eight months before the project was installed. Now just four years later, the backyard is mature and the fruits of his labor are finally coming to the surface. “It’s rewarding to see it all finally come to light as I imagined it.”