Jane is a much loved client. I have designed several gardens for her & her family over the years – see Orchard House – just one of them. She recently decided to downsize & bought a house in Old Amersham where she can walk to chic shops & cafe’s without needing to get in her car. Orchard House is fabulous & many acres but miles from shops & cafes so this is a considerable change. She engaged an architect who designed her a passive house & I was asked to design a contemporary space to match. The existing garden was on two levels & very unpleasant indeed. This one had to be pretty exceptional to make her happy after selling Orchard House so I had quite a task ahead of me!
I designed a series of courtyards around the house on three levels. All easily accessible including for wheelchair users should the need arise; meaning it would be future proof if Jane decides to stay forever (she has a tendency to buy new houses as, like me she loves a project 🙂 Jane is also the most sociable person I know so there had to be plenty of entertaining space.
So – the design includes a huge bespoke dining table in the lower terrace with a permanent shade as this is a south facing garden, another large terrace to the side of the house with fabulous topiary domes & two upper areas including a cutting garden with smart black greenhouse by Alitex & bespoke joinery throughout. Jane is a keen gardener & her last cutting garden I designed for her was always overflowing with very pretty & special flowers. This new one is very big & very special indeed… Jane loves to push my creativity & asked me to design all these elements including the posh shed which I thoroughly enjoyed doing. Just planted, I was there in June 2025 with my boy Bruno to take a mooch about.
It is architectural in styling with a limited palette of materials & very much designed to link with the house. The site was sloping with the fence sloping upwards & away from the house. I disliked this manky fence intensely so I designed a series of linking walls in different materials to disguise this element & create individual garden ‘rooms’.
I am as proud as can be. Do take a look at the ‘before’ photos & you will see why!
All designs by Jo Alderson Phillips, garden built by Jane’s builders, finished, planted & sourced by Rob & team @ The Garden Design Co, joinery by Sarah & team @ Oxford Planters, bespoke metalwork & table by Joe The Gentleman Blacksmith & photo’s by James @ JAW photography.
