Secret Garden in Western Style

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

*Creating a string of small circles of plants of differing heights for a remarkable effect.*

*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.

*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.

*Cute figurines from the owner’s collection welcome the visitor coming up to the house. /// Medium-sized carp pond adds a pleasant feeling.*

*Little courtyard tucked away with plants grown behind a little stone wall just high enough to sit on, for an English flavor.*

*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.”

*The garden with its many fresh shades of green is enclosed by banyans, very private.*

*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.

*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.

*Concrete bench in among the plants for a pleasant hideaway.*

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

Secret Garden in Western Style