City gardens come in all shapes and sizes, and some are sunny, some are shady, and others can often be overlooked by neighbours. A good city garden design meets these challenges to create an outdoor space that offers rest, relaxation and visual interest. The view of the garden from the house is often just as important as what the garden feels like when you’re in it. A great city design creates a natural transition from the inside space to the outdoors, and invites you out into the garden.

A family garden to beat the heat: Ixelles

This walled garden in Ixelles is a real sun trap, but without the cooling effect of planting, the south-facing terrace was simply too hot to enjoy in the summer months. The garden also felt box-like and unimaginative, and as a result was not used much by the family. By adding in multi-stem trees, we created structure, focal points and shade, and a much-needed cooling effect near the terrace. Wide borders flanking the steps to the garden act as an invitation to go and and explore it. Climbers clad the walls with soft, romantic flowers. Plants were chosen to attract birds and other wildlife into the garden. In the shadier back of the garden, woodland-style planting brings interest and helps to blur the boundaries. Through this design, the couple’s young daughter discovered a love of gardening, and now really enjoys being out among the plants and flowers.

Stepping up to a challenge: Watermael Boitsfort

A large, impressive garden in Watermael Boitsfort had the bones of a new design but none of the softening planting when I was called in to help. The conditions were challenging, with a long north-facing slope creating difficult conditions for many plants. Careful selection of tough but attractive plants helped to soften the impressive bluestone steps, while more naturalistic and drought-tolerant planting was chosen for the hot, sunny areas near the natural pool. The client is a busy professional who runs their own business, and wanted a garden that was good for the soul but not overly demanding, so a low-maintenance design was important to its success. Trees were essential too, helping to connect the garden to the wider landscape and breaking up the large expanse of lawn.

Driveway design: La Hulpe

The front of the house gives an important first impression, and hopefully welcomes you home. In the case of this newly built house in La Hulpe, a 30M long border flanking the driveway was proving challenging. Weeds had taken hold, and the clients needed suggestions for tough, low-maintenance plants that would look good and add interest at different times of year. Their gardener had suggested mass planting of geraniums, but they were looking for something a bit more imaginative. We opted for a colour theme of complimentary pinks, purples and whites, which looked good with the gravel driveway, and choose a large proportion of ground-cover plants to suppress the weeds.