A narrow tenement garden burst into life thanks to smart planting and a textured palette
“The architecture of the surrounding buildings informed the garden,” begins Rachel Bailey as she describes a tenement garden in Glasgow’s west end that has been utterly transformed under her care. “Like a lot of tenement back yards in the area, people would park their cars at the top end, but the garden itself was just a long expanse of gravel with a very narrow concrete path running the length of it.”
The owners wanted to make more of their outside space and have a place to sit where they might catch a hint of sun at lunchtime or in the evenings. And they wanted a more pleasant outlook too. “It needed to be in keeping with the age of the property,” explains Rachel. “The natural stone, the architecture – it needed to blend in with those.”
Many neighbouring properties have impressive bay windows, and these became a source of inspiration. “I drew on those shapes,” says the designer. “I brought octagons into the garden and used angles that were similar to the bays, to get that connection with the architecture. The tenement garden is surrounded by five-storey tenement buildings – you can’t escape them.”
The first octagon you come to is part of the path, with planting in the centre of it and staggered beds on each side. “The point of this was to disrupt the long path going down the tenement garden. I wanted to break up the corridor feel that you often end up with in such a narrow space,” says Rachel. “It also allowed me to put diagonals into the planting and the raised beds. I purposefully put repeat planting on those diagonals to draw the eye sideways. It makes the space feel wider than it actually is.”
At the far end, the second octagon contains a bench sourced by the client (“She has exceptional taste!”) and a spherical light that looks like stone. There are pathway finder lights, stake lights within the planting, and more lights as you go up the steps. All those different lighting channels can be switched on and off by remote control. “We didn’t want them always to be on – partly so as not to annoy the neighbours, but also out of consideration for wildlife,” explains the designer. “There are streetlights everywhere in the west end, obviously, but we can do our part to fight light pollution.”
Trellising was installed around the seating area to give this tenement garden a bit of privacy without creating a solid, oppressive barrier. “We were mindful of the neighbours here too – we didn’t want to cast even more shade for them.”
Like the trellis, the imposing timber fence on the left side of the garden has been covered with climbing plants. This helps to blur the boundaries and make the garden feel larger. It’s hard to tell where it starts and ends.
Gravel that had been left over from the old space was put to use at the base of the beds to help with drainage. Hard landscaping was minimised where possible in this tenement garden and Rachel focused on including as much planting as possible. “There were two thriving camellia trees in the tenement garden already,” she says.
“I’m not a fan of ripping things out just for the sake of it, so I was determined to keep them. They were both planted on the left, though, so I needed to balance them. I pruned and lightened them up, then planted an acer on the right. It brings the eye up but has a nice light canopy.
“My advice if you have a similar space is don’t miniaturise everything,” says the designer. “The paths all the way through this tenement garden are generous – at least 1.2m wide – and the slabs are laid horizontally to add to that feeling of width. Using the octagons meant we could create narrow borders, then move to much deeper borders, then back to narrow. It provided the opportunity to use a lot of plants. Big plants! Tiny plants and a border that hugs the boundary can make a small tenement garden feel even smaller.”
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