Plant Associations

Creating plant associations that evoke wilder natural communities always feels like the most sensitive and subtle approach. Within our designs they create a pleasing counterpoint to the strong, often graphic underlying form.

Top of the list would be an Umbellifer such Anthriscus Sylvestnis [Cow Parsley] which froths with delight in early may in harmony with the Hawthorn ‘May tree’ blossom. Anthriscus Ravenswing is an elegant maroon garden worthy version of this. These are short lived however and very tasty to snails and slugs. 

A later season version of this and a garden designer favourite is Cenolophium [Baltic Parsley]. It is long flowering [June - Sept] and stands well even as it fades from white to green to winter black. The stems are slender but sturdy, the leaves shiny and in my experience not devoured by gastropods.

A perfect foil for spires, shown here with Lythrum Blush and Digitalis Feruginea or with the fresh green of a Euphorbia. Best in cooler places but tolerates sun or light shade, a useful transition plant that can be cut back in spring.

A Day in the Life of Niwaraku

In late 2022, Niwaki were in Japan and were given the opportunity to spend the day with Niwaraku (aka Mr Masaru Suzuki).

Niwaraku kindly let team Niwaki tag along for a day of gentle gardening, sightseeing and spicy sushi rolls.

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Musings from The Rain Garden

In a gesture of reverence to terra firma, nearly half of Aesop Seongsu is devoted to The Rain Garden—an intimate green space in the store’s central courtyard.

Here, a naturalistic planting design is realised; hardy perennials and trees with strong vitality are favoured over delicate seasonal blooms. Drawing on regenerative principles, rainwater is collected in a storage tank and a pond to be recycled and drained back underground.

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The Nunhead Gardener

The Nunhead Gardener are an independently owned and run group of South London based community garden stores who pride themselves on their highly knowledgeable team of horticulturalists.

Back in 2016, Monocle Films headed to the leafy suburbs of southeast London, where entrepreneurs Peter Milne and Alex Beltran have given up their corporate jobs to set up this charming garden centre.

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New Project

The Courtyard

Set in the grounds of an 18th Century dower house, this modern barn conversion offered an opportunity for a multilayered and bold landscape design response, to create a garden for a newly retired couple.

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