In 2023, I had the pleasure of working with garden designer Stefano Marinaz on my own garden in West London. I wanted to create a woodland garden with unusual and interesting plants at every turn. Stefano's design centred around a long meandering path linking two seating areas. One of my favourite details was his decision to scatter cobblestones through the slate-chip pathway, as though they were fragments of an older landscape emerging through the surface. Such a simple idea, yet it gives the garden a quiet sense of history and permanence.

The challenge, of course, was light. Mature London plane trees along the boundary of our corner plot cast heavy shade for much of the day, so the planting scheme needed to embrace those conditions rather than fight against them. Fortunately, shade gardens can be wonderfully atmospheric, and the changing patterns of light throughout the day became part of the design itself. For a specialist garden photographer, these softer conditions often create the most beautiful and evocative images.

The path is really the spine of the garden, drawing you through pockets of sun and shade and allowing for a broader, more adventurous planting palette. I loved the idea of recreating the feeling of a woodland edge – that rich, layered transition between open space and woodland – and making the garden feel like somewhere you experience rather than simply look at. Perennials and subshrubs were interwoven into the grass matrix providing height and interest throughout the year. Trycirtis formosana, Gillenia trifoliata, Edgeworthia chrysantha, Daphne 'Jacqueline Postil' and Persicaria filiformis are just some of the plants Stefano used.

Climbers also play an important role, softening the hard lines between house and garden and helping the space feel more settled and timeless. Cobaea scandens, Holboellia latifolia, Lapageria rosea, Wisteria sinensis and Akebia quinata ‘Shirobana’ are all happily scrambling up the red brick walls, adding another layer of texture and unpredictability.

Now, three years on, the garden feels wonderfully established. The perennials –  planted originally as tiny P9s – have clearly decided they’re happy here, and the multi-stem trees have found their feet. The atmosphere is exactly what I had hoped for; calm, slightly wild, and endlessly interesting. Most days there is something new to notice. A shaft of sunlight catching a fern, a flower appearing unexpectedly, or the changing structure of the garden through the seasons. It has become a place not only to garden and relax, but also, naturally, to take photographs.