This welcoming front garden took a car dominated space and was reimagined it as a resilient, drought tolerant shade to part-shade planting. Where gardenesque aesthetics provide a warm welcome and incorporate copious planting areas, permeable functional brick paving area allows parking space.

The planting blends British native woodland plants like Foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea and cowslips Primula veris, selected ferns including Polystichum setiferum 'David Howard’ with drought resilient introductions; wood aster, Eurybia divaricatus, Epimedium × perralchicum. 'Frohnleiten', Sedum ternatum, and Tiarella cordifolia. Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' lends height to the planting.​​​

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Small pockets of planting comprising of climbers were added within the garden to soften the hard landscape elements.

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This front garden continues to involve as a living experiment in climate resilient planting. It will be monitored over the coming years recording which species succeed in England’s driest counties, Essex. Multiple future will be added, including a bulb layer in autumn 2026. This garden aims to be zero watering. 

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Collaboration

Plants: Howards Nursery ​

Photography: James Miller​ and Saachi Parasrampuria