Georgian Courtyard Design

The Brief:

To Design a Courtyard Garden for a Georgian Farmhouse

Designing a courtyard garden for a Georgian farmhouse requires balance between elegance and practicality. Georgian architecture is known for it's symmetry, proportion, restraint and repetition. The garden must therefore follow suit. Structured planting following a clear central axis, softened with layers of herbaceous perennials & seasonal colour to bring warmth & movement. Even when the planting becomes soft, the underlying geometry should feel disciplined.

The Proposed Design

Inspirational Mood Board

The Design

The layout was split into 3 areas - the Courtyard Border, the Long Border and the Kitchen Border. The idea being that the Courtyard border is more formal leading to a relaxed Kitchen Border, but all linked through theme and style.

Starting with a nod to Georgian repetition, we created a structure of evergreen Buxus Topiary Balls, Half Standard Bay Trees and formal Buxus low hedging repeated continuously throughout the design. To echo the farmhouse and country setting, we added looser perennials and gentle textural grasses. The colour palette changes from cool blues along the Long Border to a more cottage feel pink palette in the Kitchen Border.

Key Considerations:

• South Facing Site - plants need to be drought tolerant,.

• Low Maintenance - a busy family with limited gardening knowledge.

• Decide on focal points - Topiary standards & Buxus balls for formality.

• Seasonality - bulbs for early colour, evergreen for year round, summer perennials.

  
  

  

  Planting Plan

The beds filled & ready for planting. Farm manure was placed at the base of all the beds & then topped with loam free top soil.

Amazing quality from Hortico Nusery

Buxus Topiary Balls arriving on site

Planting Scheme

Anemone × hybrida 'Königin Charlotte'

Perovskia 'Blue spire'

Allium hollandicum 'Purple sensation'

Stachys byzantina ‘Big Ears'

Festuca amethystina

Verbena bonariensis

Lavender ‘Munstead’

Lavender ‘Phenomenal’

Agastache ‘Black adder’

Buxus Ball 30cm

Half Standard Laurus Nobilis 50cm 4/4stem

Buxus Hedge 25cm

Paeonia ‘Sarah Bernhart’

Paeonia ‘Peter Brand’

Panicum virgatum ‘Warrior’

All the topiary was sourced from a local nursery - Hortico in Kelsall, Cheshire. Perennials were sourced direct from dutch growers. On this occasion we sourced all plants for the client and worked alongside their gardener to plant up the space.

Freshly Planted & Ready to Grow...

Overall, thrilled with the final result!

Happy Gardening! x