Johnny’s Garden in August

It is no small feat to design a garden in which opposites meet and difference is celebrated, but to do so in a pocket-sized plot is remarkable. ‘Whilst the structure of the garden blends contemporary and traditional features, my planting style is a fusion of cottage garden with urban prairie — it’s still a work in progress,’ explains Johnny Le Huquet. Raised beds run along two sides, meeting at a compact multi-stemmed amelanchier tree that anchors the brimming-over borders and links the garden to the trees of the surrounding townscape. In high summer, when jewel-like blooms weave in and out of a tapestry of grasses and umbellifers, he struggles to recall the original scene in 2006. ‘The garden was empty, apart from a cat’s skeleton, but I didn’t pay heed because I wasn’t a gardener.’