Most buildings are photographed on the day they are finished, when the planting is at its thinnest. We prefer to design for the tenth summer instead: the year the climbers reach the roof, the shade trees close their canopy and the stone has softened under moss. A garden is the part of a project that keeps working after we have gone.
Start with the ground, not the plant list
Before choosing a single species we map what the site already offers: where water collects after rain, where the soil is thin over rock, which corners hold the morning sun and which stay cool all afternoon. A planting plan that follows these conditions needs far less irrigation and far less correction later.
On a dry hillside that might mean thyme, rosemary and wild olive in pockets of gravel. In a shaded city courtyard it means ferns, hellebores and a single multi-stemmed tree that lifts its crown above the windows. The palette changes; the method does not.
A wall with a planting pocket at its base becomes a different wall within three years.
Designing walls that welcome planting
We detail walls, terraces and roofs with planting in mind from the first drawings. That means soil depths that allow real roots, wires and ledges for climbers, and stone laid with open joints where seeds can settle.
Planted roofs with at least 30 cm of soil, not decorative sedum mats
Climbing frames fixed before render, so they never have to be drilled later
Gravel and stone joints that let rain reach the ground
Trees placed to shade glass in summer and admit sun in winter
Patience as a design tool
Clients are sometimes surprised that we plant smaller than they expect. Young plants establish faster and live longer than mature specimens moved at great cost. We would rather spend the budget on soil and on a gardener’s first two years of care.
The reward is a place that looks better every year it is used. When a building and its garden have grown together for a decade, it becomes difficult to say where the architecture ends. That is exactly the point.
