Every garden starts on paper — pencil, and watercolour where it helps
you picture it. You see the garden before it exists, and you can change
your mind while changing it is still free.
The drawing on the left, the finished garden on the right. Most people
only ever see one of the two.
Plate I
Whitechapel
London
DrawnColoured pencil and watercolour, drawn before any ground was broken.
Built
Photograph of the finished scheme — to come from Alexander
Redesigning the unloved external space of an
ex-local-authority block of flats. Communal ground given the same
attention as a private garden.
Plate II
Ben & Tamil
Rayleigh
Drawn
Original drawing — to come from Alexander
Built
Finished garden — to come from Alexander
After moving into their marital home, Ben & Tamil
had a great garden space made unusable — the previous owners had
eradicated all the grass to work around her pets. The ground was
levelled for a new lawn, railway sleepers repurposed into a pathway,
raised beds relocated, and new borders created for planting.
Plate III
Charlotte & Clare
Brentwood
Drawn
Original drawing — to come from Alexander
Built
Finished garden — to come from Alexander
A new extension needed an exterior to complement it.
A new lawn, a fragrant lavender border, espaliered trees, and a
stumpary with tall grasses — allowing them to stay close to, and
introduce, new wildlife.
Note for Alexander: the marked panels are waiting on your original
drawings and a photograph of each finished garden. Nothing here is stock
or generated — an invented "finished garden" would be a lie about your
work, so the slots stay visible until the real thing arrives.
Why it's drawn first
A drawing is the cheapest place to change your mind.
Moving a border on paper costs nothing. Moving it once it's planted
costs a day and a skip. That's the whole argument for designing before
building — and it's why the drawing comes first every time.
I
Look and measure
What the garden already has that's worth keeping, what the ground is
like, and what you actually want to do out there.
II
Draw it
Pencil, and colour where it helps. Planting drawn as it will look,
not as symbols on a plan you can't read.
III
Build it
The same person who drew it does the work, or oversees the
landscapers who do the hard elements.
Got a garden that isn't working?
Describe it on the phone. If it's a design job he'll say so, and if
it just needs a good clear-up he'll say that too.
