Tour a 4-Season English Garden Designed for Outdoor Living
An elegant courtyard with multiple destinations to discover encourages a family to enjoy the outdoors
In this sun-dappled courtyard garden in Essex, England, gravel paths crunch underfoot and wind between planting beds packed with swaying ornamental grasses and fragrant flowers. Walkways open up to multiple areas where homeowners Frankie and John Sheekey can relax and watch butterflies flit among blooms, birds cruise into the feeders and — if they linger past sundown — maybe catch a glimpse of the garden’s resident hedgehog, named Mr. B. Prickles by the couple’s two children.
After: Fox proposed a complete landscape redesign, including bringing in pleached trees to address the need for more privacy and dividing the flat, open space into multiple outdoor rooms: one for dining, a second for relaxing by a fire feature and a third close to the house for cooking.
Fast-forward past planning and installation and the family now enjoys a dynamic courtyard garden where they entertain friends, eat dinners outside in the summer, barbecue year-round and share their love of nature with their children.
Fast-forward past planning and installation and the family now enjoys a dynamic courtyard garden where they entertain friends, eat dinners outside in the summer, barbecue year-round and share their love of nature with their children.
Given that the garden surrounds a 14th-century house (Grade II listing), it was important that any new components tie in with the existing building materials and overall formality of the home. “We stuck to traditional-style materials like Cotswold stone, oak and Jura limestone to give an aged yet modern effect,” Fox says. “The design itself pulled all these elements together in a contemporary way but felt in keeping with the architecture.”
Pleached European hornbeam trees (Carpinus betulus, USDA zones 4 to 8; find your zone) and rows of lavender reflect a traditional, formal planting design. In other areas of the garden, the introduction of ornamental grasses and freeform perennials planted in clumps and swaths, rather than orderly rows, gives the garden a natural meadow-like feel, in line with a more contemporary aesthetic.
Pleached European hornbeam trees (Carpinus betulus, USDA zones 4 to 8; find your zone) and rows of lavender reflect a traditional, formal planting design. In other areas of the garden, the introduction of ornamental grasses and freeform perennials planted in clumps and swaths, rather than orderly rows, gives the garden a natural meadow-like feel, in line with a more contemporary aesthetic.
Outdoor dining room: A solid oak pergola planted with wisteria vines encloses the outdoor dining room, providing light shade for the eating area and a structural feature for the backyard. As the vines mature, they will eventually blanket the pergola in lush foliage and fragrant springtime blooms. “The oak pergola was a very bold statement,” Fox says. “We wanted to make a real wow feature, while at the same time framing views out to the wider garden.”
The pergola measures 17⅖ feet (5.3 meters) long, 16⅖ feet (5 meters) wide and 7⅕ feet (2.2 meters) tall, providing ample room for a table to seat six to eight people on the Jura Beige limestone patio or host a larger party with cocktail tables. The solid oak beams sit in metal sleeves that act as a protection against water damage and as a contemporary architectural feature of the design.
Key Measurements for Designing Your Perfect Patio
Key Measurements for Designing Your Perfect Patio
A zigzag pathway of warm-toned Cotswold gravel and rectangular Jura Beige limestone pavers links the outdoor dining space to a more casual lounge.
The metal-edged walkway winds between beds planted with evergreen boxwoods, arching giant feather grass (Stipa gigantea, zones 5 to 10), chartreuse Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, zones 6 to 8) bearded iris (Iris ‘Sultan’s Palace’, zones 3 to 10) and English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, zones 5 to 9).
The metal-edged walkway winds between beds planted with evergreen boxwoods, arching giant feather grass (Stipa gigantea, zones 5 to 10), chartreuse Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, zones 6 to 8) bearded iris (Iris ‘Sultan’s Palace’, zones 3 to 10) and English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, zones 5 to 9).
Backyard lounge: The curved lounge abuts a neighbor’s garage, now covered in a white-flowering climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris, zones 4 to 8). What was once an eyesore for the courtyard now enhances the design.
Browse outdoor lounge sets
Browse outdoor lounge sets
Cotswold gravel forms a compacted floor beneath the seating area and provides a warm tone that ties in with the surrounding grasses.
The material selection and installation technique reduce the gravel’s movement. The Cotswold gravel used here is more angular than traditional pea shingle, making it better at locking in place. Fox’s team used a geotextile membrane beneath the gravel on the path and patio to help form a secure base and then tamped the gravel down to compact it.
The material selection and installation technique reduce the gravel’s movement. The Cotswold gravel used here is more angular than traditional pea shingle, making it better at locking in place. Fox’s team used a geotextile membrane beneath the gravel on the path and patio to help form a secure base and then tamped the gravel down to compact it.
Terrace adjacent to house: The third terrace, just off the kitchen and living room, features a grill (not pictured) as well as a pair of chaise lounges set at the opposite end. The reclined seats provide yet another area to tempt the family to get outside and enjoy their backyard.
Large windows in the family room and open kitchen look out onto this courtyard, making the garden very much a part of the home’s interior. “I often work in the summer with the doors flung open to the sunshine and the soft breeze, being distracted by watching the butterflies and bees on the flowers,” Frankie says.
Large windows in the family room and open kitchen look out onto this courtyard, making the garden very much a part of the home’s interior. “I often work in the summer with the doors flung open to the sunshine and the soft breeze, being distracted by watching the butterflies and bees on the flowers,” Frankie says.
Plantings: Ornamental trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials fill planting beds and provide year-round interest. “It has evergreen structure throughout the year,” Fox says, “but the herbaceous planting provides seasonal color from spring to autumn, with bronzing of the grasses as the summer moves into autumn.”
Flowering perennials and bulbous plants, such as four different types of allium, add color from spring to fall and attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators.
See how to design a contemporary garden for pollinators
Flowering perennials and bulbous plants, such as four different types of allium, add color from spring to fall and attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators.
See how to design a contemporary garden for pollinators
The mix of shrubs and perennials provides year-round interest and requires far less maintenance than planting designs centered around annuals that need to be replaced every season. To keep beds looking neat, the grasses, perennials and box are trimmed back twice a year. All beds are set on timed soaker hoses for irrigation.
Apples and two types of feeders strung on a wire hang from the pleached trees, attracting seed- and fruit-eating wild birds.
The garden has become an integral part of the Sheekey family’s lifestyle — a place for relaxing at the end of the day or hosting friends on the weekend. For the couple’s children, the garden acts as both a play space and an open-air classroom for learning about the natural world. “We enjoy bird watching as a family and raise butterflies during the summer from kits. We have bug hotels in the garden, bird boxes, bat boxes and we also are lucky enough to have a resident hedgehog,” Frankie says.
When asked if the prickly fellow had a name, Frankie says, “The kids couldn’t agree. One called him Mr. Prickles, and the other Boris, so he’s called Mr. B. Prickles.”
The garden has become an integral part of the Sheekey family’s lifestyle — a place for relaxing at the end of the day or hosting friends on the weekend. For the couple’s children, the garden acts as both a play space and an open-air classroom for learning about the natural world. “We enjoy bird watching as a family and raise butterflies during the summer from kits. We have bug hotels in the garden, bird boxes, bat boxes and we also are lucky enough to have a resident hedgehog,” Frankie says.
When asked if the prickly fellow had a name, Frankie says, “The kids couldn’t agree. One called him Mr. Prickles, and the other Boris, so he’s called Mr. B. Prickles.”
Garden at a Glance
Who lives here: Frankie and John Sheekey and their two children, ages 7 and 8
Location: Essex, England
Lot size: About one-quarter acre (940 square meters)
Designer: Patricia Fox of Aralia
Before: The yard behind the family’s renovated 14th-century home was not always a place of such bucolic charm. “It was previously a very neglected and overgrown area,” Frankie says. Shrubs were overgrown, planting beds had large empty patches that became home to weeds and a pond held stagnant water. There was also an exposed oil tank. Without screening plants, the neighboring house seemed to encroach on the courtyard.
An outdoor upgrade was one of their top priorities when the Sheekeys moved in, and it wasn’t long before they reached out to landscape designer Patricia Fox to help them reimagine the space. Carving out privacy was a main goal from the start, as was creating a low-maintenance garden with year-round interest. “We wanted it to be a joy to look out on [the garden] all year-round,” Frankie says.