Before: the garden before its redesign was something of a blank canvas. The narrow corridor alongside the house funnelled the wind, was bisected by a metal portico and disrupted by pebbles and pavers.

Rachael Matthews from HEDGE Garden Design & Nursery, drew up plans that not only made the most of what was an oddly shaped area but also overcame some of the negatives, such as the sight lines from the tower block next door and livening up awkward utility areas to make them useable and productive, including a raised vegetable garden.

She says the garden was something of a blank canvas but even some quite inexpensive changes made a big difference. An early decision was to paint all the wooden features such as the walls of the raised gardens and edges, black, which not only smartened the overall look but linked them to the apartment’s facings.

Another saving was made by reusing the original pavers to create a new look as well as to level the base course underneath them which had become uneven over the years.

A long narrow area to one side of the apartment, which looked even narrower because of it’s starkness, was bisected by an immovable metal portico arrangement that Rachael decided should be incorporated by strategic planting.

To widen the look of the raised bed running along the outer wall, she set a low Buxus hedge, recycling bushes that had been part of a hedge elsewhere.