Joe Swift – presenter of Gardener’s World and Small Town Gardens – is co-founder and director of Modular Garden and reckons they’ve come up with an ideal design solution. “People are often put off by the cost of a full design package, especially as some designers work on an hourly basis so you don’t know how much the project will cost until the end. Instead, we offer all-in-one packages at realistic prices that are fixed from the outset” he says.
Form by Modular Garden is a streamlined service using top-class designers, overseen by Joe himself, which takes care of all the different components involved, from the design and planting plan, the hard landscaping materials and labour, to the plants themselves. The first consultation is free, and to guide you they offer a number of design options. For example, under Colour, you might choose hot, neutral or cool; for Use, the options are simple or flexible. The service starts from around £6,000, and although that
may sound like quite a lot of money, when you consider that it includes absolutely everything needed for your dream garden, it’s really not bad.
One satisfied client is Seema Paterson, whose tiny backyard in west London used to be more of a dumping ground then an outdoor room. Whenever she saw a picture in a magazine of a similarly small space, she saved it – and realised that all the designs she liked were by Joe Swift. “So we called Modular Garden, and asked what they could do for £6,000. We’d drawn up a list of everything we wanted, including decking, simple planting, corner seating and, most importantly, we wanted to make the narrow side return an integral part of the garden, not just an alleyway.”
The design Joe and his team came up with features gorgeous hardwood decking that runs crossways down the side return, to increase the feeling of space, and continues into the main area. The corner seat is
made in the same wood and the back wall has been painted in a pale shade to reflect light back into the garden.
The planting is simple but effective: black bamboo behind the seats gives some privacy, Trachelospermum jasminoides and Clematis armandii climb the fence, and shadows from Sambucus nigra “Eva” dance on the back wall. After making a couple of tiny changes to the initial design (clients have the option of one free redraw), Seema went on holiday for a week – and when she returned the garden was done “We’re so pleased with it. It’s such a transformation and we’re out here all the time now,” she says.
Pros A bespoke service for a set price.
Cons Possibly a little less flexible than a more expensive service, but good value for money.
How much? From around £6,000
