The reader

Kate Monckton, 42, a fashion PR Location Kew, Surrey

Conditions South-facing, 40ft long by 20ft wide

Description This is a small town garden that has been transformed into a contemporary “outdoor room”, with strong foliage plants

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It is amazing how changing the boundaries can transform a small town garden. When Kate Monckton, 42, bought her two-bedroom cottage on a no-through lane in the London suburb of Kew 2½ years ago, she was separated from her neighbours on either side by a lap-larch fence that had definitely seen better days.

Kate, who had studied theatre design at college, realised that she had to consider her garden as she would a theatre set if she was to create the sense of calm and privacy she was after. So she employed Brian Hall, of Northwood Trellis, to make an 8ft-high fence of hardwood strips, which completely encloses the plot and has brought it bang up to date.

“Putting up modern fencing changed the feel of the garden,” says Kate, who runs her own fashion PR consultancy. “It is now like a room, not a garden. It was expensive, but well worth it – not one person who has come here hasn’t said ‘wow’.”

Hall estimates that such fencing would cost about £100 per square metre now, as a worldwide reduction in wood supply has pushed prices up considerably.

When Kate moved in, the garden consisted of the old fence, a scruffy lawn, broken York paving and “some really nasty shrubs”. Everything came out, including the lawn.

“A grass garden isn’t really me,” she says, pointing out that it demands weekly mowing in summer. Kate is a low-maintenance girl when it comes to extramural upkeep. The garden has been created as a place in which she can entertain friends, “or lie down doing nothing”, rather than slave over during every free moment.

To this end, she uses plants like furnishings in a room, rather than as the raison d’être of the space. And she has put down polished limestone, from Stone Age. This is a material usually associated with interiors, so it increases the impression of an outdoor room. “I wanted that smoothness underfoot,” she says, “so you can pad around in your bare feet.” Sealed for external use, it shouldn’t crack or discolour.

The paving creates a wide expanse of space for parties, and the planting is strictly confined. Everything must work hard for its inclusion: raised beds painted in chic gunmetal grey, at the rear of the garden, act as a back rest for the floating wooden bench that runs along them, and two borders filled with tall plants jut into the centre of the garden like dividing walls. Kate has employed the useful trick of carving up the space so that it is not all immediately visible, which creates the impression that the garden is bigger than it is.

She admits her fingers are far from green, but it is obvious she has a flair for form and texture. She also has a nicely gung-ho attitude: if a plant isn’t thriving, she will move it to another place. “I had no knowledge of gardens,” she says. “I have learnt so much as a novice gardener over the past year.”

Kate has relied largely on plants that have impressive foliage, rather than ephemeral flowers, with evergreens that will keep their interest year-round. A pretty acer, acid-green in summer and yellow in autumn, with an elegant structure of trunk and branches in winter, is framed by the fence. Ferns, palms, fatsia, pittosporum and bergenias all provide clean outlines and strong shapes.

“I like a shrub,” she says. “I like the variegations of green. I’ll never have pink in my garden.” This predominance of shrubs also means that the garden is low-maintenance: “Cottage gardens make me nervous.”

In her impatience to create a lush hideaway, Kate confesses that she might have put in too many plants. “I didn’t want to wait three years. If you want an instant garden, you are going to have to pack close. Then things grow out of their trousers and you need a bigger pair.”

One particular specimen is a case in point, though Kate just hacks it down when it gets too big. “My gunnera is bonkers,” she admits. “I know I’m not meant to have it in such a small space [they can grow to 12ft], but it gets on well. It is a running joke with my mother and gardening friends, who subtly tried to warn me how large it would become. I now realise what they meant, but I don’t care – I love its huge great elephant ears, barging out and cramping the other plants’ view.”

Kate works from home, and looks out from her desk onto the garden. “It’s all I need,” she says. “I don’t know how people cope with big gardens. “One of the most important things is having a place where I feel happy and secure.”

And, now that she has made the garden virtually maintenance-free, the next plan is to “go out and get a social life”.

Kate’s tips

- Ignorance is bliss. Try anything that takes your fancy, and move it if it isn’t happy

- Make sure you understand what happens to plants at different times of year

-If you have limited space, take out traditional beds, as they can make the garden look really small. Height and clever placement of plants can make it look bigger

- Changing the fencing in a town garden makes an instant impact

Northwood Trellis; 01923 820190. Stone Age; 020 7384 9090, www.estone.co.uk

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