Patio of the Week: Calm Japanese-Style Haven in the City
A landscape designer turns a featureless concrete box into a lush, relaxing retreat
A small, enclosed, shady backyard may feel like an unpromising space for relaxation and socializing, but this design by landscape designer Stathis Lazarides proves otherwise. Given free rein by the homeowner, Lazarides turned an unappealing concrete space into a relaxing, spirit-lifting haven that offers interest all year round, including beautiful color in the fall and structural shapes throughout winter.
Before: The patio had just two small flower beds and a disused cat enclosure, and was covered in concrete pavers. A busy street runs behind the right-hand wall, so, as well as surrounding the area with greenery, muffling noise was a consideration.
“To make it like a little haven, we needed to drown out the sound, and you can do that with small trees,” Lazarides says. “People often think you can’t have big plants in a small space, but you can [visually expand] the space if you put bigger plants in it.”
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“To make it like a little haven, we needed to drown out the sound, and you can do that with small trees,” Lazarides says. “People often think you can’t have big plants in a small space, but you can [visually expand] the space if you put bigger plants in it.”
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After: Lazarides created numerous vignettes, so from every angle there’s varied, textural interest in the form of sculptural plants, iroko and charred-oak slats, and granite features.
The plants are all suitable for shady areas in a temperate climate — think grasses, ferns and Japanese maples. The lush plantings spread from ground level to several feet high, thanks to flower beds, plant pots, tall raised planters and lofty “borrowed landscape” — greenery beyond the boundary that can visually be pulled into the garden.
“There was a big ivy hedge at the back, which we kept, as it’s a nice wall of green, then there are trees beyond that,” Lazarides says. “We trim the ivy twice a year to make it behave itself.”
The garden doesn’t have an irrigation system, but the owner is happy to water her plants when necessary.
The plants are all suitable for shady areas in a temperate climate — think grasses, ferns and Japanese maples. The lush plantings spread from ground level to several feet high, thanks to flower beds, plant pots, tall raised planters and lofty “borrowed landscape” — greenery beyond the boundary that can visually be pulled into the garden.
“There was a big ivy hedge at the back, which we kept, as it’s a nice wall of green, then there are trees beyond that,” Lazarides says. “We trim the ivy twice a year to make it behave itself.”
The garden doesn’t have an irrigation system, but the owner is happy to water her plants when necessary.
The back wall of the patio is black, which serves to highlight the plantings. “Underneath the ivy hedge, I wanted to do something dramatic, so I used burnt oak, created using the Japanese technique of lightly charring wood known as shou sugi ban,” Lazarides says. “When you put a lush plant in front of it, it stands out.”
“The walls of the courtyard were all over the place — nothing was even,” he continues. “So we needed to use cladding all the way around and did a bit of replastering on the right-hand wall to create these clean lines.”
“The walls of the courtyard were all over the place — nothing was even,” he continues. “So we needed to use cladding all the way around and did a bit of replastering on the right-hand wall to create these clean lines.”
Before: Having plants at ground level was key to the immersive design, so Lazarides wanted to create a much wider bed in the far-right-hand corner, as well as a small additional bed at the back left, but it wasn’t easy, as this “in progress” photo suggests.
“Under the pavers, there was [three feet] of concrete; it took the contractors four days to break it all up,” he says.
The team used the existing pavers as a base for the decking. “Although they were ugly, they were quite sturdy and had a solid foundation, so it saved money to put the decking on top,” Lazarides says.
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“Under the pavers, there was [three feet] of concrete; it took the contractors four days to break it all up,” he says.
The team used the existing pavers as a base for the decking. “Although they were ugly, they were quite sturdy and had a solid foundation, so it saved money to put the decking on top,” Lazarides says.
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After: Now the widened bed holds lush male ferns (Dryopteris Filix-Mas ‘Cristata’, USDA zones 4 to 8; find your zone) and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra, zones 5 to 9) at ground level, as well as a beautiful multistem Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Deshojo’, zones 5 to 9), whose leaves go from red to bright green to orange throughout the year, reaching above the wall and visually merging with the trees beyond.
“I love multistem trees, because they have so many interesting branches going upward and outward at the same time,” Lazarides says. “We prune the [Japanese maples] in this [yard] carefully in really early spring, when they’re still dormant, to make sure they grow in the desired shape.”
Lazarides fitted vertical iroko posts in the slightly inset space that originally held the very narrow bed. “For me, wood is a sculptural element,” he says. “Instead of a plain wall, it was nice to add another element to make it more interesting.”
It’s one of the many vignettes in this yard that create numerous interesting places to rest the eye. “Even though it’s a small space, there are so many different design elements and different focus areas, but without making the place look too busy,” Lazarides says.
Making the design interesting without its feeling chaotic came down to limited color and materials palettes. “It’s about repetition, important in a garden,” he says. “In nature, that’s how things work, especially when it comes to planting. Plants self-seed and create groups.”
“I love multistem trees, because they have so many interesting branches going upward and outward at the same time,” Lazarides says. “We prune the [Japanese maples] in this [yard] carefully in really early spring, when they’re still dormant, to make sure they grow in the desired shape.”
Lazarides fitted vertical iroko posts in the slightly inset space that originally held the very narrow bed. “For me, wood is a sculptural element,” he says. “Instead of a plain wall, it was nice to add another element to make it more interesting.”
It’s one of the many vignettes in this yard that create numerous interesting places to rest the eye. “Even though it’s a small space, there are so many different design elements and different focus areas, but without making the place look too busy,” Lazarides says.
Making the design interesting without its feeling chaotic came down to limited color and materials palettes. “It’s about repetition, important in a garden,” he says. “In nature, that’s how things work, especially when it comes to planting. Plants self-seed and create groups.”
A small granite bowl with a traditional Japanese-style bamboo spout adds movement and gentle sound. “In this space, we couldn’t add a water feature big enough to mask the road noise, but in the evening, when it’s quiet and the homeowner is enjoying a glass of wine, you can hear the trickling,” Lazarides says.
Granite bowl: The Japanese Garden Centre
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Granite bowl: The Japanese Garden Centre
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Next to the main bed, Lazarides placed a large pot containing a sculptural, cloud-pruned — or niwaki — Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis, zones 4 to 9), set against a smooth, pale gray wall to showcase its shape.
Lazarides excels at this juxtaposition of classic Japanese shapes and clean lines and surfaces. “I love using Japanese elements in a contemporary space for a minimalist style,” he says.
The door seen here, which leads out to the street, as well as the door into the apartment (not pictured), is painted orange. “The homeowner chose the outdoor sofa, then I scanned the color and had paint mixed in the same shade,” Lazarides says.
Lazarides excels at this juxtaposition of classic Japanese shapes and clean lines and surfaces. “I love using Japanese elements in a contemporary space for a minimalist style,” he says.
The door seen here, which leads out to the street, as well as the door into the apartment (not pictured), is painted orange. “The homeowner chose the outdoor sofa, then I scanned the color and had paint mixed in the same shade,” Lazarides says.
The large pots are sculptural features in and of themselves. “If you want to create a minimalist design in a setting like this, all the elements need to work really hard and stand out in their own right,” Lazarides says.
He planted the one seen here with a pale green Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Seiryu’, zones 5 to 8), which looks stunning against the blackened oak, and the homeowner added trailing maidenhair vine (Muehlenbeckia complexa, zones 7 to 9).
The composite decking creates a pale base for the patio and is long-lasting and low-maintenance.
Containers: Torc Pots; decking: DesignBoard, London Stone
He planted the one seen here with a pale green Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Seiryu’, zones 5 to 8), which looks stunning against the blackened oak, and the homeowner added trailing maidenhair vine (Muehlenbeckia complexa, zones 7 to 9).
The composite decking creates a pale base for the patio and is long-lasting and low-maintenance.
Containers: Torc Pots; decking: DesignBoard, London Stone
Eulalia grasses (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Yakushima Dwarf’, zones 5 to 9) rise, fountain-like, from behind the outdoor couch, adding height and screening. “I wanted to hide the boundary fence, so I painted it black and planted these to create a grass hedge,” Lazarides says.
“The good thing about grasses like these,” he continues, “is they give you interest for 10 months of the year, because even when they become dormant and brown in winter, they keep their form, and the seed heads offer food for birds and a haven for insects. I use ornamental grasses a lot, because they work so hard and are so low-maintenance.”
He adds, “We don’t cut back anything until early spring, because the Acers look beautiful, with reds, oranges and yellows in autumn, while the ferns, grasses and evergreen iris leaves add winter interest.”
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“The good thing about grasses like these,” he continues, “is they give you interest for 10 months of the year, because even when they become dormant and brown in winter, they keep their form, and the seed heads offer food for birds and a haven for insects. I use ornamental grasses a lot, because they work so hard and are so low-maintenance.”
He adds, “We don’t cut back anything until early spring, because the Acers look beautiful, with reds, oranges and yellows in autumn, while the ferns, grasses and evergreen iris leaves add winter interest.”
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Another variety of Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Inaba-Shidare’, zones 5 to 9) introduces dark purple, which tones with the couch and iroko paneling and punctuates the greenery. It sits above lush Japanese forest grass and a stinking iris (Iris foetidissima, zones 6 to 9), a variety that’s happy in shade.
The upper patio, which is clad in dark gray porcelain tile to contrast with the paler decking, is essentially a transitional space, but Lazarides made the most of it. “In a small space, every inch matters and is a design opportunity,” he says.
The black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Kokuryū’, zones 6 to 9) in the raised bed and the Japanese pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira, zones 9 to 10) in the pot are both evergreen.
The iroko posts along the edge of the upper patio are both a safety feature and a design feature, echoing the uprights in the opposite corner of the patio. “I’ve fitted both horizontal and vertical slats, but they’re all clean lines,” Lazarides says.
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The upper patio, which is clad in dark gray porcelain tile to contrast with the paler decking, is essentially a transitional space, but Lazarides made the most of it. “In a small space, every inch matters and is a design opportunity,” he says.
The black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Kokuryū’, zones 6 to 9) in the raised bed and the Japanese pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira, zones 9 to 10) in the pot are both evergreen.
The iroko posts along the edge of the upper patio are both a safety feature and a design feature, echoing the uprights in the opposite corner of the patio. “I’ve fitted both horizontal and vertical slats, but they’re all clean lines,” Lazarides says.
Sofa: Bubble Club by Philippe Starck, Kartell
A small flower bed was dug in the far-left corner, and Lazarides planted bamboo for another layer of greenery at head height.
Caution: Some types of bamboo can aggressively spread. Choose a clumping variety, and consult a local nursery or cooperative extension before planting.
Caution: Some types of bamboo can aggressively spread. Choose a clumping variety, and consult a local nursery or cooperative extension before planting.
All the beds are covered with granite pebbles, which work nicely with the decking. A Japanese-style granite lantern contains candles that add an atmospheric glow in the evenings.
Granite lantern and granite pebbles: The Japanese Garden Centre
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Granite lantern and granite pebbles: The Japanese Garden Centre
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At twilight, the homeowner can switch on carefully positioned lanterns to create a warm mood. “In a small space like this, I don’t like using up- and downlights, I prefer using ones that produce an ambiance. If you don’t use too many, the light creates an atmosphere,” Lazarides says. “In the early evening, when the traffic has died down and the water feature is on, it’s magical.”
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The homeowner now spends a lot of time enjoying her patio. “She says she gets delivery drivers coming into the garden through the side door and being wowed, and she has trouble sending them away,” Lazarides says with a laugh. “She adores her garden, and to me, that’s the biggest reward.”
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Check out our beginner’s guide to get started on your home project
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Patio at a Glance
Who lives here: An Australian woman
Location: South East London
Size: Around 215 square feet (20 square meters)
Landscape designer: Stathis Lazarides of Epoch Landscapes
Contractor: Olive Tree Landscaping
The owner of this patio, which is the outside space for a second-floor apartment in a converted Victorian house, didn’t have a specific brief. “She just wanted a space she could enjoy being in and have friends over and enjoy a glass of wine,” Lazarides says. “I suggested that this kind of small courtyard is perfect for a Japanese-inspired garden.”