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Small gardens
The Bottom Drawer
The Twain Shall Meet
Designer: Lorna Thomas and Davinia Wild
Contractor: Great Spaces
Sponsor: The Bottom Drawer
Click on the images to view a hi-res version
This garden has been created for a newly married couple who were given a garden as their wedding present using 'The Bottom Drawer’s' alternative gift list service. Rather than giving the usual toasters and tea pots, friends and family selected from a gift list that contained plants, paving stones, decking – even the man hours to lay it all.
The couple could not agree on what they liked (a common issue), but wanted to have a garden they could both enjoy, so they each contracted their own garden designer. She wanted herbaceous perennials and he wanted big leaves and structural foliage. She wanted hot colours and he wasn’t so keen. She wanted the garden to be inspired by the arts and crafts movement and he wanted it to be contemporary and unfussy. She wanted to titivate and potter and he wanted low maintenance. But they both want to be able to sit and enjoy each other’s company in the garden.
The Twain Shall Meet garden brings together two garden designers with quite distinct styles and approaches to design. It is a small garden of two halves that works beautifully as a whole. The design is a square split diagonally, one side planted predominantly with perennials, the other with shrubs. A circle of decking in the middle brings the two sides together. An area of lawn and area of gravel allow access to the decking. There is a feature mural on ‘his’ side and a feature marble sculpture on ‘her’ side (‘Opposites Attract’ by Hugh Harris Roberts). After the show, two separate ebay auctions will sell-off plants and features from both ‘his’ and ‘her’ sides of the garden. The wood, cobble stones and pebbles will be recycled.
Lorna and Davinia (Dabs) met at Merrist Wood College studying the HND in garden design in 2004. They now both work full time as garden designers. The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show presented them with an opportunity to work together. Lorna Thomas made her debut at the show in 2006 winning an RHS Silver Medal for her small drought-tolerant garden. Their styles of design and working are completely different and this inspired the idea for the garden theme.