When the writer Daisy Garnett and her husband, Nick Pearson, bought their Georgian house in Brixton, south London, in 2007 the garden initially looked like a verdant utopia. But as they began to strip away the overgrowth, they soon realized that the lushness was all ivy and that many of the trees, including a copper beech, were long since dead.
The house had once belonged to an haute couture collector named Mrs. Hillyard, and despite being left to its own devices for many years, the space clearly had potential. “It had great bones,” says Daisy of the walled garden where gnarled apple trees, a magnolia, and a bay tree remain. It had clearly been a much-loved garden, too—the former chatelaine had grown roses through the trees and had nurtured a white lilac tree from flowers in her wedding bouquet.
Below, Daisy gives us a tour.
Photography by Clare Coulson.
See also:
- Green Living: A London Home Packed to the Rafters with Houseplants
- Steal This Look: A Lush Woodland Garden in London
- Garden Visit: A Victorian Terrace in South London, in Three Acts
N.B.: This post has been updated with new links; it was first published July 2016.
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