Edgy Woodland Wonderland
South London
A private garden of ten by ten metres in South London, made from a bare patch of lawn enclosed by a standard fence on three sides. Nine multi stem trees, three ginkgos, three flowering cherries and three pines, filter the light the way a woodland canopy would over a matrix of grasses, and instead of one focal point there are three off centre feature walls, three to four metres long and up to two and a half metres high, faced in bespoke clay tiles. The same tiles are set into slate chippings on the ground, in two sizes and three thicknesses, packed close at the metal edge and dispersing as they reach into the garden, with a small water feature added for the sound of it and for wildlife.
The owners, one of them an architect, asked for anything but a traditional lawn fringed with flower beds: a place to eat outside, and a fire pit the family toasts marshmallows over. Two yellow pots pick up the buttery leaves of the ginkgos. Shoots and Leaves built the garden, and in 2025 the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers gave it the Garden Jewel Award.
Stefano Marinaz
Stefano Marinaz is an Italian chartered landscape architect and agronomist whose practice, Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture, works from London and Utrecht across Britain, Italy and the Netherlands, on sustainable and biodiverse gardens.
@stefano.marinaz. Photography @alistergthorpe. Also credited @shootsandleaveslondon and @leongardens.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.