The Reading Courtyard

A tired side return at a 1970s terrace house, reworked into a green room the owners now read and eat in every evening.

The brief was deceptively simple: the family wanted somewhere to sit that did not feel like the leftover strip between the house and the boundary wall. We started by widening the sightline from the kitchen so the garden became something you walk toward, not past.

Planting is layered for depth in a narrow space — a backbone of architectural palms and tree ferns, a middle band of cordyline and calathea, and a soft edge of mondo grass that hides the drainage channel. A single timber bench runs the length of the planter so the whole family can sit without crowding.

Two years on it has filled in exactly as drawn. The owners tell us the best compliment is that visitors assume the garden has always been there — which, for a courtyard this young, is the highest praise we could ask for.