This small front garden posed a challenging but inspiring brief: retain car access, provide secure storage for four bicycles and bins, and create a green, welcoming space — all within a tight urban footprint. As the bike shed required step-free access, the ground level was lowered to allow smooth movement while preserving flow through the space.

Front gardens are often treated as purely functional, with most of the area given over to hard surfaces. Here, the ambition was to reverse that balance — keeping hard landscaping to a minimum and giving as much space as possible to planting. Staggered clay pavers were laid to allow generous planting pockets, softening transitions where hard surfaces meet.

Layered woodland planting creates a sheltered, immersive atmosphere, with a multi-stem tree providing shade and vertical structure, a climber softening the hard edges of the architecture, and a soft green understorey wrapping the space in calm.

Bespoke timber bike and bin stores were designed to fit precisely into the space, keeping everything secure, functional, and visually quiet. Natural materials — clay, wood, and metal — connect the space to the architecture and root it in its surroundings.

Even the smallest outdoor space, when filled with nature and thoughtfully designed, can shape how we feel and influence how we interact with others.

Completed: 2025

Contractor: Buffalo landscapes