Jinny Blom has created a lush tropical garden in the heart of London
‘This garden was the ultimate blank canvas,’ recalls Jinny Blom. ‘When I began work, the house was a building site, all the outside space had been capped with concrete as there was so much heavy machinery on site, and my only brief was to create a place for my clients’ children to ride their bikes.’
Less than two years later, it is rather hard to take her words at face value. Walking in the dappled shade cast by a jungle of tree ferns, stag’s horn sumach and Koelreuteria paniculata, along stone paths that lead from an outdoor kitchen and dining space past an oak pergola to a secluded seating area and a Moorish-style gym building designed by the architect David Money, it all feels established, elegant and decidedly grown up. Take a closer look, however, and you realise that the paths form an excellent cycle track, there is a capacious swing seat hanging from the pergola, and the planting is not just horticulturally interesting, but also provides any number of hiding places for very small people. ‘I got in touch with my inner child and the ideas came to me quickly,’ explains Jinny.
Tucked into a quiet side street in a bustling area of central London, this garden is enclosed on all sides by high brick walls. These provided the starting point for Jinny’s design, which was implemented by the contractor Ryan Alexander Associates. ‘In a city garden, you can create your own hidden world,’ says Jinny. ‘I think it’s wonderful to live under a tree canopy, so the scale of the planting in relation to all of the surrounding structures was crucial. I wanted the greenery to look just as good to someone sitting in one of the ground floor rooms as it did when viewed from above.’
Getting this balance right requires a certain amount of skill. ‘You don’t want to plant something that’s going to outgrow its space in a few years’ time,’ says Jinny, who has more than two decades of experience in designing exceptionally well-judged gardens. Here, she has carefully selected trees that can be kept to an appropriate size, including the beautiful little yellow wattle Acacia pravissima, and the silky needled Pinus patula, which responds well to pruning if required.
The high walls of the surrounding houses allowed Jinny to approach the garden as a self-contained world, largely free from any wider botanical context, so she opted for a generally tropical plant palette, including Pseudopanax ferox, Melianthus major and Tetrapanax papyrifer. ‘All those wonderful jungly things create a texturally interesting, green backdrop that looks good all year round. Then we embroidered it with strong seasonal colour,’ Jinny explains. Fiery red Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, orange Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’, and the giant crinkled leaves of Salvia confertiflora – topped by velvety orange flowers on rich red stems – all pack a visual punch.
Summer bulbs include the firework sparkle of Allium schubertii and punky Allium ‘Red Mohican’, which is paired with eye-popping Crocosmia ‘Severn Sunrise’. Earlier in the year, there are masses of species tulips – mainly Tulipa sprengeri and T. acuminata – and a few of the brightest and best cultivated forms, including the reliable, sweetly scented tangerine-orange ‘Ballerina’. ‘I have consciously worked lots of subtle fragrance into the planting,’ says Jinny. ‘I think it’s something you appreciate when you’re in the heart of a city.’
From the sweet honey hit of Euphorbia mellifera and vanilla-spiced chocolate vine Akebia quinata to the soft scent released by Calamintha nepeta whenever a bicycle wheel brushes past, this invisible extra dimension adds significantly to the overall impact of the garden. ‘It’s an intentionally sensuous space,’ observes Jinny. ‘I wanted the owners to be able to open all the doors in their house and feel protected and enveloped by plants, but I also wanted them to feel drawn outside to spend time in the garden,’ she explains. ‘That’s why I chose to hang a swing seat – not just a swing – from the pergola. The children can have fun on it or snuggle up with their parents for a story, but the grown-ups can enjoy it on their own as well. Swinging is a treat usually denied to adults, but we all deserve a place where we can feel truly free’.
Jinny’s new book ‘What Makes a Garden’ (Frances Lincoln, £35) is out now. jinnyblom.com | David Money Architects: davidmoney.com | Ryan Alexander Associates: raael.com
