Get the look: Courtyard Garden Part One

The smallest of our five main gardens is regularly shown the BIGGEST love on Instagram with reels enjoying hundreds of thousands of views. This is a deep dive into how it's all put together.

My Courtyard Garden a.k.a. The White Garden was inspired by visits to Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Great Dixter. A combination of Vita Sackville-West's renowned 'White Garden' and the iconic entrance porch to Dixter. Consisting entirely of pots and planters, the colour scheme is whites and greens. Simple and elegant.

The Courtyard walls face south and west. When the summer sun actually shines, this area absolutely bakes! All white walls. Large windows. Pale gravel. The front of the house is so bright that the roses across the driveway, in the Cottage Garden, actually face the house, rather than towards the sun!

How do you create a garden like this?

Well, I’m going to share everything. The all important planting. The pots and planters. Accessories and focal points. If you’re in desperate need of the Plant List, apologies, but you’ll have to stay tuned for Part Two, which will arrive next weekend. Until then, let’s take a look at some of the multi-storied planting and we're starting with the tallest!

Top Story: Trees

Every garden can benefit from trees. If I had a city balcony, I would still have a tree. If I had no outside space at all, I would have a 'bonsai' tree. I love Acer palmatum 'dissectum', the Japanese Maple. Sadly, those filigree-leafed acers need a degree of shade that's entirely lacking in the Courtyard. They would literally scorch, the fine leaves reduced to cinders. Without constant water they’d just curl-up and die. So, we need tough, drought tolerant trees, ideally evergreen, because we want year-round interest.

Trees provide both height and structure, essential to this garden and arguably any garden, but especially small gardens. Without trees, your field of vision doesn't rise. You're always looking down and any bare expanse of wall or fence dominates the picture. Add height to the planting (could be trees or obelisks with climbers, etc.) and your perspective changes. You've moved from scanning for details low down, below knee height, to looking upwards and having to take a wider view, consequently the garden seems larger, more expansive.

The Olive, Olea europaea

The classic choice for hot 'n' dry sites and the tallest tree in the Courtyard. There are three of them, including the one at the very front of the house, just setting the scene when you come through the gates. My olives are all grown as standards (clear trunk, tradition lollipop shape) and are still young and relatively open branched.

Olives are extremely tough. We know they can tolerate the searing heat and drought of the Mediterranean, but did you know they'll survive fire and ice, tolerating freezing temperatures down to -7℃ (20℉). Critically, olives do not like freezing waterlogged soils. Only plant them in free draining soil or in planters with very gritty free-draining compost.

If you want the leaves to be on the green side, water weekly and add a monthly seaweed feed. They’re not hungry plants. Tough though! The ones you see here had a fungal leaf infection following the ‘Beast from the East’. They defoliated. I cut them right back to the trunk, branches and all. They grew back just like new. Remarkable!

NOTE: Please ensure you buy olives from reputable suppliers. Xylella fastidiosa, is a particularly nasty disease and, thankfully, still absent from the UK. It infects a range of plants including rosemary, lavender, stone fruit, and hebes:

"Until recently Xylella was absent from Europe but in 2013 the bacterium was identified as the cause of death of olive trees in southern Italy. There are now major outbreaks on ornamental plants in southern France (including Corsica), the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca) and southern Spain and most recently in Portugal, in Lisbon and the Algarve." (RHS read more here)

Bay, Laurus nobilis

Next layer down, we have this bushy evergreen with large, deep glossy-green aromatic leaves (the ones you use in cooking). They contrast very nicely with the olive’s narrow silvery-green foliage. These have been grown with striking double-helix stems and they make a real architectural statement and point of interest.

Bay, like olive, detest winter waterlogging, so good drainage is a must. They're also susceptible to leaf scorching in dry freezing winds. A sheltered spot is preferred but not critical as any scorched leaves can be snipped off. Weekly watering and a fortnightly or monthly seaweed feed will keep them in top shape. After a few years, it's a good idea to pot-on your containerised bays, or at least give them a root prune and replant with fresh invigorating compost.

Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’

The newest addition here with beautiful glaucous foliage. We have two in the Courtyard and they frame the informal entrance into the table and chairs. Their open habit creates a relaxed curtain of glaucous foliage, working well as a discrete screen.

Eucalyptus are famously drought tolerant in the wild, but out there they can send down colossal tap roots in search of underground water reserves. Not so in a pot. Containerised eucalyptus will need regular watering, just like everything else. A deep drink, once per week seems adequate. Every April, I’ll prune the eucalyptus down to about 30cm (12in), promoting multiple stem regrowth and grow them more as a bushy shrub. Left to its own devices, these eucalyptus will grow straight up, several metres high, rapidly outgrowing the space and its pot.

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Middle Story: Flowering shrubs

English shrub roses

The richly perfumed Rosa ‘Desdemona’ and the not quite as fragrant ‘Winchester Cathedral’ (retired), both by David Austin Roses. ‘Desdemona’ is an especially healthy and floriferous rose. Good for cutting too. Highly recommended. Roses in containers are always planted with a rich blend of quality peat-free compost and loam-based John Innes No.3. They also receive a fortnightly feed alternating between a seaweed root drench and Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic, as a foliar feed.

Rosa ‘Desdemona’ by David Austin Roses

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Living Sugar Rush’

Pure white and very blousy, with large, wonderfully tactile, conical flowerheads. Their shear size provides real oomph to the white-flowering display. An easy going plant with an upright habit. They'll happily take full sun, as long as the rootball is well watered. Without regular watering, you’ll need to park them under a tree, or against a north or east facing wall, so they have a little shade during the hottest part of the day.

I tend to prune these down to 20-30cm (8-12in) in March when I see the new leaf buds unfurling. Hold back on the fertiliser with Hydrangea paniculata. If there's too much feed, the new stems will be too soft and pliant and fail to support the massive blooms. In pots, I’ve found it's best to merely redress with fresh compost in spring, with a dusting of Fish-Blood-Bonemeal.

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Middle Story: Evergreens shrubs

Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Silver Queen’

Probably the only variegated plant in the entire garden. The leaves have a beautiful silvery/green tone with a pale edging, so another useful shade of green, again with a different form and habit. Their size will be constrained by the pot and yearly pruning, otherwise they could reach 2m (6-7ft) in all directions. Like bays, they won’t appreciate cold drying winds or waterlogged soils.

Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star’

Bringing another evergreen glaucous hit, but with an entirely different form, sprawling and mounding with very dense spiny growth. This Juniper won’t need pruning and is happiest in hot, sunny locations, perfect for the Courtyard. Again, keep the compost on the sharp side. None of these sun-lovers will appreciate waterlogging.

Convolvulus cneorum

A Mediterranean native, is a small evergreen sprawling shrub with silver leaves and white, open trumpet-shaped flowers. It absolutely demands sharp drainage! Hard prune annually, after flowering, to keep it compact.

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Coming up…

We continue the deep dive into my Courtyard Garden, exploring lower-story planting with beautiful herbaceous perennials, spring bulbs, plus the galvanised pots and planters, accessories and focal points. Not forgetting the all important Plant List for your reference.