PHILIPPA O'BRIEN GARDEN DESIGN

This elegant garden in Hampstead was designed to give flat lawn space on a site that sloped in every direction.

Much of the garden is very shady and has been planted with ferns and other shade tolerant planting, but the sunny areas have been filled with traditional English Country garden style planting.

Four mature olive trees are complimented with airy Mediterranian style planting highlighted with bursts of hot pink. Painted contemporary screens add height to the existing brick wall, while a painted shed holds essential supplies.

The aim in this garden is to give more privacy to the small back garden and the kitchen opening on to it. This was achieved with pleached Quercus ilex which soon grew in to give very good close screening. At ground level a water filled Urbis planter formed the focal point and was enhanced by mainly white planting to give a tranquil space.

this garden looks very stark in the photos, taken the day it was completed. But it has now grown in and softened. The pleached Carpinus and timber archways break up the space vertically.

A small outdoor kitchen gives a convenient work space and sink for outdoor entertaining, wile nearer the house big comfortable settees give space to relax.

When I first saw this garden it had a rotting brown deck and a weeping birch. We decided on Millboard for the decking as it is light and low maintenance.

A slate base was set into this so a fire pit could be used. Planting is kept light and airy so as not to obscure the view.

This garden on heavy clay was designed round some existing old topiary. Hot colours and grasses were designed to highlight the beauty of the old Yews.

This garden focuses on the lovely Alitex greenhouse specified by the owners. They are keen gardeners and a place for vegetables and cut flowers was essential.

When a garden looks out of an ancient stone church at the front and a river at the back, it not hard to enjoy.

The vegetable garden to the side was one of the first areas completed, with raised beds for easy maintenance and fruit cages to keep the blackbirds off the soft fruit.

Ancient Irish yews lined the front path, but these were so big it was impossible to get up the path. The brave decision was taken to cut them down to the ground and , as can be seen in the picture, they were back looking better than ever within a couple of years.

Corten steel edging has been used to provide gently curving raised beds leading down to a new gym building. A small Urbis water feature is tucked into one of the widest borders. Paving is large units of porcelain which match those used in the kitchen.

The brief for this garden was to provide habitats for wildlife, an area to grow vegetables and a small garden room where the owner could write and contemplate the world away from her young family.

We converted an old pond into a much larger version, edged with some of the stone found in an old rockery on site which gives masses of g=crevaces for wildlife to move into.

A wildflower meadow was laid as turf giving this display two months after planting. The garden room was roofed with sedum so that it looks pretty from upstairs as well as from ground level.

Vegetable growing is provided for in a pair of large raised beds and all planting is designed to encourage birds and pollinators.

this garden was designed to draw attention away from a very ugly swimming pool building. A series of oak archways lead the eye down to a small garden room at the end of the path, and the use of green oak is echoed by a series of oak posts swagged with ropes and climbing roses.

Like all the best gardens, this is a project which has developed slowly over the years. It evolves as the needs of the family change.

Part of its charm are the majestic trees which are grouped around the garden, but they also provide some planting challenges.

this is a truly ephemeral garden, never the same for even a month at a time.

The owner of this garden did all the work in the garden with her husband. She wanted something unusual and bold with strong architectural foliage. We ended up with a bit of a jungle and banana plants growing a foot a day.

The people who commissioned this garden knew exactly what they wanted. They are knowledgeable gardeners with firm ideas on how the garden was to be developed. The garden is very much English country garden style, with a beautifully tended vegetable plot at the top and a clean level lawn enabled by some careful terracing.

This house in chiswick has the smallest back garden imaginable, so the owner wanted to make the front a pleasant place to sit as well as to park the car.

Hard landscaping is subtle, with Breadon gravel retained with a random edge of reclaimed York stone. A hedge of pleached hornbeam screens against the 94 bus that goes past at regular intervals.

Planting includes two standard wisteria which cascade with blossom in the spring.

Our favourite part of this long narrow garden is the purpose built shad, with a small summerhouse and clean storage in the front and a space for tools at the back.

Architect Jeff Dutt and Landscaper Stephen Quallington, and I put together a mad tree house with an extravagant green roof covered in Alchemilla mollie and Hakonechloa. Ground planting was ferns with carnivorous plants and meconopsis. It was called the Shelter.

This border backs onto a 12ft wall. Bold treatment was needed to make sure it stands out. Bespoke ironwork for the Gertrude Jekyll rose breaks up the wall and the border is divided into bays by yew hedges.

the bulk of the planting is grasses and salvias while spring bulbs give a burst of colour early in the year.