Enter through a bright-red door on an Antwerp street corner, and you pass through a passageway before encountering an enclosed courtyard garden that is an unexpected riot of cascading wisteria, climbing roses, tall cypresses and irises, with water tinkling in the background. “Some visitors say it’s like the South of France, while one journalist described it as ‘Little Italy,’” says its creator, Antoine Vandewoude. It could equally be said that the bonsai, ferns and acers give the space a Japanese feel.
Not that Antoine cares much for labels. He is a self-taught carpenter, designer and maker who creates everything from furniture to entire interiors for his clients, including the Belgian fashion designer Dries van Noten. He has also recently discovered a talent for ceramics. Antoine is a self-taught gardener, too, and applies that same artistry and intuition to his outside space as he does to his interiors.
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The garden is part of the live/work property that Antoine shares with his wife and two adult sons. Having searched for seven years for a property with outside space, they eventually found this rundown former sweet factory with a concrete-filled courtyard in the late 1990s. The property had such an unusual layout that they almost didn’t view it, but in the end they could see its potential.
Antoine spent a further seven years renovating the property before the family moved in. The living space is now on the first and second floors of the main building, above an office and storage area; the plant-filled kitchen flows out on to a terrace on pillars constructed by Antoine. Across the courtyard is Antoine’s workshop, with his ceramics studio above it. This leads out on to a verdant and unusual green roof, topped with a pergola.
Antoine quickly realised that the central courtyard was in danger of becoming a dumping ground from the renovations, so resolved to create a garden while he was working on the living space. Much like the interiors that Antoine works on, it has evolved over time. “Old houses were not done in a day. The ones we like the most have a certain spirit, because they have a layer of time on them.” He did not draw up a plan for the courtyard: “Often designers make paths and no one walks on them. I wanted to make sure the paths would be where it’s natural to walk.” He also did not initially know much about plants. “I decided on the form of a plant I needed, then researched which plants had that form and would grow in my space.”
Initially, Antoine had a path going from the house directly to his workshop opposite, with the rest of the area laid to lawn. He soon realised that this was not the solution. “Most gardens have grass in the middle and plants on the side. But it’s not interesting, because you see everything all at once. It’s not mysterious.” He removed the grass and replaced it with stone paving, adding more planting, a meandering path and water.
The water emerges from a stone cube near his office and is then gently pumped over stones before filtering through a small pond. “It was a lot of work, but it wasn’t complicated.” The feature was inspired by a picture he saw at a client’s house, of a mountainside in Italy where water was running next to a path. “That’s how it often works with me – I see something and think I can do something with the idea.”
The small space feels infinitely more generous and intriguing as it is taken upwards wherever possible. The cypresses give height but were actually chosen to frame the view from the first-floor living space. “If I’m in the kitchen, I can’t see the garden below, but I can see the cypresses, and they frame the view of the green roof opposite.” This green roof, complete with a pergola that is smothered in climbers and a grapevine, gives the impression of a hanging garden.
Towering wisterias play a key role. There are three in the main courtyard, including a vigorous, pink-tinted Wisteria floribunda f. rosea ‘Hon-beni’, which clambers up and over the pergola on the kitchen terrace and the pergola on the roof above it, and Wisteria floribunda f. multijuga ‘Kyushaku’, which has very long flowers and clothes the workshop. There are more wisterias in pots on the green roof. “Growing wisteria in a pot is not ideal,” he admits. “They need a large container and ericaceous compost and feed. I also regularly prune the roots. It is best to place the pot in the shade and the plant in the sun.” After the wisterias come the roses. Antoine originally planted 36, but only a handful remain. “There was a certain amount of spraying, but in the end I just kept the plants that were really healthy. Some were just too fragile, so I gave them away.”
Irises also feature strongly. In addition to Iris ensata in the courtyard pond, three 2.5m-long window boxes on the roof of the kitchen contain Iris germanica (the cultivar names long since forgotten), mixed with self-seeded grasses and a wild rose, giving a naturalistic look. There are more irises in planters on the green roof. “Irises are ideal for pots as their tubers store food and water,” says Antoine. “They tolerate drought and grow in any well-drained soil.”
Seven bonsai – a pine, three junipers, laurels, an elm and a ginkgo – are another notable feature. Despite their delicate appearance, these are hardy trees, so stay outside in all but the coldest weather. Antoine has not done much to them for three years, and his work in the garden is now mostly confined to pruning, especially the wisterias and roses. He is toying with the idea of adding camellias here and there for interest earlier in the spring and never accepts plants from friends, as they won’t fit in with his aesthetic. But however the garden evolves, he will develop it with the same immense creativity that he applies to everything that he does.