A formal front garden to a period town house, Ilkley.

Moving to this double fronted period town house, the clients inherited a small front garden, (no back lawn garden) with an awkwardly sloping front lawn and very little planting – just a row of tiny box trees behind the original railings.

They wanted to have a useable, level lawn for children’s play, places to sit and a bold, simple planting design of green and white only (the colour theme of the interior of the house was white).

Stone retaining walls were used to level out the lawn and to provide a stone flagged terrace with space for a pair of white Lutyens - style benches to echo the symmetry of the garden and the double fronted house.

The planting design included evergreens for a strong framework of green – box hedging, standard hollies and Pittosporum ‘Golf Ball’ with white introduced with a succession of white flowering plants – winter hellebores, snowdrops, Viburnum x burkwoodii, white tulips, alliums, white lavenders and variegated foliage. A row of three Acer globosum trees were planted along the existing privet hedge to provide screening of the block of flats opposite.

"Helen and Ian came up with several possible outline proposals from which we picked our favourite. They developed detailed plans for the landscape contractor to follow and a thoughtful planting scheme. We’re delighted with the end result."  (Steph Atack).

AFTER

New white Lutyens-style benches below the two reception room windows

Central path and gate framed by a pair of standard Hollies

The tall white alliums followed on from white tulips (‘Spring Green’) & Narcissi ‘Thalia’

Mixed greens of the hellebores, holly and white lavender.

New cut stone for lower step to the front door.