Exotic planting brings Californian style to Adam Sykes's London garden
Exotic planting brings Californian style to Adam Sykes's London garden
Exotic evergreens provide structure for diverse planting in soft greens and whites, taking a London garden to West Coast America. Words Matt Collins, photographs Jason Ingram
Adam Sykes found his dream house project by chance along an unlikely street in southwest London: an intriguing example of Modernist architecture surrounded by Edwardian houses. Evocative of the Californian-style homes in and around Los Angeles – where Adam had lived – he got straight to work beautifully remodelling the interior of this 1960s Brutalist relic. From the very start, however, one eye was turned to the garden: “There was a very conventional and formal city garden here originally; I wanted to redevelop it into something much softer and less rigid, to complement the house.”
Having previously worked with Andrew Eden of Town and Country Gardens on his former roof garden in South Kensington, Adam asked Andrew to begin developing an initial planting design. “The first thing I said was, ‘you’ve got to have palm trees’,” notes Andrew. Coastal evergreens are the defining feature here: a magnificent fan palm (Washingtonia robusta) stands close to the house, furnishing an open-plan kitchen/dining area with an air of laid-back exoticism, along with a shimmering black pine, spiky Trachycarpus and a feather-leafed jelly palm (Butia capitata). You can see more of how Andrew helped to give Adam's London a West Coast vibe below.
Having softened the hard edges of this mid-century property with a stylish interior, the aim was to achieve a sense of ‘messy contrast’ in the surrounding garden. The result is an eclectic mix of structural foliage and tranquil, naturalistic planting that channels southern California.
The clean lines of Adam’s strikingly Modernist, single storey house, designed in 1963 by architects Peter Foggo and David Thomas, are softened by a mix of colourful perennials and vigorous ornamental grasses, including Miscanthus sinensis, which integrate seamlessly with cycads, pine and palm trees to create a relaxed, transcontinental feel.
A well-worked soil, improved with lots of organic matter, promotes happy, healthy growth: flourishing clumps of dazzling Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora ‘Columbus’, Verbena bonariensis and Scabiosa columbaria subsp. ochroleuca leave little room for gaps in the borders.
Strawberry and acacia trees, inherited from the former garden, offer seclusion for the property as well as protection for more tender exotics such as the Washingtonia and jelly palms. The evergreen structure is then continued through stout, bushy pines and robust Cycas revoluta.
Matt is a garden and landscape writer, and Head Gardener at the Garden Museum in London. Matt contributes articles on horticulture, nature and travel for publications including The Guardian , RHS's The Garden and Hortus. He writes a monthly column for the Daily Telegraph where our garden plants come from. Matt has several books published internationally by Pavilion Books. Matt’s interests lie at the intersection between cultivated and natural environments; his latest book, Forest, Walking Among Trees (Pavilion) traces an intercontinental pathway between British trees and their wild-wooded counterparts, and was shortlisted for an Edward Stanford Travel Writing award. Matt is a member of the Garden Media Guild.
