Blog : GARDEN

Secret Garden in Western Style
livingasean

Secret Garden in Western Style

  • By livingasean
  • September 22, 2016
  • GARDEN

As we stand in front of this secret garden, the fragrance of  jasmine trees reach out. The gate opens, revealing dazzling white flower clusters, petals spread across the driveway. Surrounding the house is a tall banyan hedge. Is a secret garden hidden inside? Owners, Aphiwat Wiriyawetchakhun and Phanison Anansuchatikun assigned Suphakit Milap of Sukyen Garden to design a garden to suit their beautiful house, and this is the result.

/// Thailand /// 

Story: Woraphason /// Photography: Sitthisak Namkham

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Creating a string of small circles of plants of differing heights for a remarkable effect.
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Though a lot of hardscape is used, the choice of plants and their placement make the garden look quite natural.

At first, I thought of doing Chinese style, flowerpots and planters because we like the Chino-Portuguese look, but we’d bought a lot of Western garden ornamentation from the GEO store before we were married. Suphakit saw it and said we should use this.” Plants were found to match, and the garden took on a vintage atmosphere resulting in a pleasant English garden flavor: a two-tier bird bath, concrete benches, and so on. The garden follows the L-shaped form of the house and is organized into two parts.

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Placing the pond by the tall windows creates a great garden view for people looking out.

“From this room both sections are visible. The owners wanted a kind of “secret garden” with a lot of privacy, hence the banyan hedge. They also wanted an orderly looking garden, not busy, so I used a formal design. In front and back, you’ll see a lot of connecting rectangles, with focus points in the center, using conservative colors and materials such as cobblestone, natural rock, and washed gravel divide areas of use.

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Cute figurines from the owner’s collection welcome the visitor coming up to the house. /// Medium-sized carp pond adds a pleasant feeling.
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Little courtyard tucked away with plants grown behind a little stone wall just high enough to sit on, for an English flavor.
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Leaves of red mixed with shades of green give dimension to the garden.

“Phanison is here on weekends, and Aphiwat is here every evening. So I used fragrant evening plants like night-blooming jasmine, golden gardenia, satinwood, and a heady mix of flowering plants to give a ‘cottage garden’ feeling, softening the hardscape with plants like Malabar chestnut, wild petunia, oleander, and leafy plants with contrasting colors like Chinese witch hazel and willow-leaf acacia.”

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The garden with its many fresh shades of green is enclosed by banyans, very private.
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Stone planters create borders for an orderly beauty that remains natural.

Each section has a circular focus point. The area by the street is a more simple yard and includes growing kitchen vegetables for home use. The back garden is much more elaborate, with a little waterfall, seating, and an elaborate hardscape.

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This spot is accessible from the living room; placed the table here for easy use.

Maintenance is fairly simple, with an automatic watering system. The owner’s mother also comes to help. “This garden has made the house so much more pleasant and comfortable – who would have thought? It feels like the fulfillment of a heart’s desire,” Phanison tosses off at the end.

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Concrete bench in among the plants for a pleasant hideaway.

link: https://www.facebook.com/sukyengarden/

Kays Espresso Bar / Coffee in the Garden
livingasean

Kays Espresso Bar / Coffee in the Garden

Happiness can be a cool breeze in the morning and a cup of coffee with pastries while listening to the sound of flowing water to a counterpoint of a birdsong. This is the experience offered at Kays Espresso Bar, a new cafe in Chanthaburi Province with a scent of coffee in the garden. 

/// Thailand /// 

Story: Aphasri Mimana /// Photography: Sitthisak Namkham /// Gardener: Suan Lila Raiyaa Nongphluem

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A decorative waterfall gives life and motion to the garden. On the stone wall above is the shop name.
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Ecology of nature: flamingo figures in fountain grass, fishing at pond’s edge.
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One of the garden highlights at Kays Espresso Bar, perfect choice and placement of plants and ornamentation.

Kwinwan Sangwan, a shop owner tells how it got started: “This was a dream of my Dad. We wanted the shop to be so pretty outdoors and in that customers would stop by to take pictures.”

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“For the landscaping, we contracted Sak Rueangphrom. From the start, we wanted an English-style garden with a hint of tropical and a lot of places for people to sit and maybe drink coffee or tea.”

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Freeform red flagstones trace a path from front to back. The river gravel is easier to maintain than grass. Vegetation of varying height lines the path past a birdhouse and an urn-shaped planter.

Sak took the challenge and delivered as ordered, even if there were a few problems to deal with.

“The first time I saw the worksite it looked like a desert, but somehow we managed to turn that around. The first problem was the clay topsoil, sticky and tightly compacted. We broke shovels digging, had to switch pickaxes. The good thing was that the ground didn’t absorb too much water, and wasn’t about to collapse.

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English-style bird bath planted with asparagus fern, spikemoss hanging below. A ground cover of varicolored leaves and flowers makes this a striking spot.

“Then the weather. In Chanthaburi it rains a lot, so we adapted, using water-tolerant varieties such as flame nettle, ferns, crepe ginger, etc. Once it rained seven days and nights, but the trees recovered quickly and by now their roots have extended and can handle any amount of rain.”

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Railroad ties laid down decoratively with ground cover plants growing over them.

The hardscape includes the large metal fountain in a modern style to match the building, with a pond and waterfall. Further on is a metal frame gazebo, and then a big rust-colored faucet set in an upright hollow log. A flagstone path of red sandstone runs throughout the garden.

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Beautifully designed lion’s head above a faucet. If you wash hands here the water falls on a clean stone surface, no mess.

Old benches are set in the back, by a gray wall covered in climbing vines, with bright ground cover colors and a bird bath planter filled with beautiful flowers. English-style chairs are found in various shady spots.

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English-style lawn chairs for enjoying tea and coffee outside.
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Arbor and back entrance gate, with a cobblestone walkway.

Sak adds, “we had to adapt the original model to include big shade trees such as giant crape-myrtle, freshwater mangrove, canna, etc., relying on hardscape and ornaments to create the sense of an English garden: urn-shaped planters, bird baths, fences, arbors. It came out just as we wanted: shady, pleasant, not overdone. Bees, butterflies, birds, crickets, and cicadas live and sing here, a relaxing sound.”

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Urn-shaped planters at the entrance show off the English garden style.
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The owner especially loves this arbor, with its curved benches set on round cobblestones.

Here is a shop owner who loves sharing nature with his customers, and with the animals who make their home in the garden. For a taste of this happiness, stop in sometimes at Kays Espresso Bar, on Yanwirote Road right in Chanthaburi. We guarantee you’ll get hooked.

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Arbor frame over a decorative brick column, with a hanging planter and cute bird sculptures.
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Cats claw vine climbs the decorative wall, reducing the harshness of the stone and bringing the garden closer to nature.
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A cute use for old watering cans: turn them into planters.

link: https://www.facebook.com/kaysespresso/

A Little English Garden
livingasean

A Little English Garden

Small joys may begin with an infatuation. This Little English garden is composed of many irresistible figurines, urn planters, and colorful plants selected by the homeowner.

/// Thailand /// 

Story: Aphasri Mimana /// Photography: Sitthisak Namkham /// Landscape Designer: Yasamanot Sriyuyong

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Flagstone path with river stone filler crosses the garden to a bench, framed by bushes and different ground cover plants. Tiny figurines and a sculpture of a woman, an urn planter: all from the owner’s beloved collection.

“I’ve lived here about six years. Before, it was full of large trees. I gradually added tropical plants until it seemed too much. We only have about 220 square meters, and the trees limited us to plants needing shade or indirect sun, so loving colorful flowers that need direct sunlight, I decided to reinvent the garden with my favorite plants and décor.

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The owner takes such good care of her plants that they produce a profusion of flowers brightening the garden everywhere.
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“I group plants that grow well together and give them as much sun and regular watering as each variety needs.”

“I took a time to think about the design, a little worried that when we took out shade trees in front of the house we’d get too much heat inside. But the house faces south, only gets full sun 4 months out of the year, and there’s usually a cool wind blowing.”

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A tall wall English banyan gives privacy, concealing the fence behind the bench.

Yasamanot designed the garden with an open look, black plum and freshwater mangrove planted about with shrubs and ground cover. Taking out the grass lawn, she paved the walkway with slate and light-colored river stones, with tall English banyans along the fence for privacy. To the right are medium-sized and beautifully flowering plants such as arrow-leaf plumeria, hibiscus, blue crossandra, white mussaenda and so on. A concrete walkway leads to a decorative fountain that brings refreshing moisture to the garden. Behind the house, She has given great attention to the placement of her most beloved plants and décor to produce the distinct feeling of an English garden.

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Before paving the path, the owner suggests first packing a layer of sand tight to make it even, then laying down a plastic mesh with gravel on top. A decorative fountain adds to the refreshing mood.

For hardscape elements like sculptures and urn planters, I bought it from Art Garden& Décor at the Saeng Ari Garden plant flea market, Nakhon Phan in the Bang Yai neighborhood, and much more. For plants, I go to Kanchanapisek Road, Bang Yai, Sanaam Luang 2, and the Baanlaesuan fair.

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Changing the garden from a play of colorful flowers to a peaceful mood, we enter a quiet spot through a green wrought iron arbor.

“I group plants that grow well together and give them as much sun and regular watering as each variety needs, paying attention to problems and changing conditions. Sometimes we have snails and leaf-eating aphids; we cut aphid-infested leaves away so the insects don’t easily spread. The garden’s in good shape now. The flowers are in dazzling full bloom, and that makes me feel happy and refreshed.

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For a good, safe fit, plant Norfolk pine by the house: it grows up, not outwards, so won’t cause problems. Roses climb the walls by cement figurines, in the English style. Verdolaga and Cape plumbago fluff out and spill over onto the path.
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Plant group of blue rock bindweed, oleander, and dwarf eucalyptus, bright green subtly dotted with color.

“In the morning you can see lots of butterflies and small birds, and smell the fragrant flowers. In the evening I come straight home and spend so much time enjoying the garden I often forget what time it is.”

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In front of the door is Cape plumbago, with bright indigo flowers, mixed with a sweet pink of water primrose, with a small cement urn planter.

 

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Red ivy extends out, climbing onto the slate flagstones. /// A cute duck sculpture hidden in among wild petunias.

 

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