THE
PETERSHAM
PLANTSMAN
— Where beautiful living takes shape —
And Kew Colour
A garden organised around colour, created to be lived with from the house.
The brief was to create an interesting, uplifting garden rich in colour and seasonal change, designed primarily to be enjoyed from inside the house.
The client, a retired lady who spent much of her time at home, wanted a garden she could look out onto and enjoy daily—somewhere that felt alive with planting, birds, and quiet movement throughout the year
The garden was open and sunny but visually weak, with a bright orange shed dominating the view and very little structure or height to hold the space together. The challenge was to introduce depth and presence without closing the garden in.
The design is organised around colour, with structure emerging through repetition, layering and planting rhythm rather than enclosure.
Two flowering cherries add height and seasonal softness, while Catalpa ‘Aurea’ and Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ provide strong focal points within the composition. Yucca bring a sculptural clarity, anchoring the planting with bold, architectural form.
An evergreen framework of Choisya ‘Sundance’, Photinia, Pittosporum and Santolina holds the structure through winter, while perennials such as Erysimum, Geranium, Erigeron, Diascia and Dianthus build layers of colour and seasonal movement. The planting is deliberately interwoven so that soil is rarely visible, giving a continuous, knitted surface.
The shed was softened and eventually absorbed entirely behind evergreen planting, becoming part of the background rather than the focus.
From the house, the garden changes as the seasons build. Colour becomes richer and more layered towards mid-summer as different plantings overlap and intensify. Birds move through the structure, cats slip between gaps in the planting, and the garden feels active without being busy.
Standing in thegaren, what becomes most apparent is the way everything connects—perfect spacing, subtle repetition, and colours that contrast in some areas and echo in others, yet hold together as a single, unified composition.