Have a Seat in a Perfect Party Garden
This low-maintenance patio is ideal for welcoming friends, day and night
For the owners of this now-gorgeous garden, weekends are mostly about spending time with friends, so when they called on landscape designer Lee Bestall to renovate their outdoor space, they knew what they wanted. Their request was for a low-maintenance outdoor room that helps them make the most of their time outside. The result: a garden with a cooking area, space to seat a crowd, a place for relaxing, a heat source, great lighting — and beautiful greenery, of course.
The paving in the outdoor “living room” is sawn and honed imported sandstone. “The garden is north-facing, and dark paving would have made it darker,” Bestall says. “This paving has quite a bit of yellow in it, and that also helps it to blend with the yellowy stone of the building.”
Key Measurements for Designing Your Perfect Patio
Key Measurements for Designing Your Perfect Patio
Since the owners wanted this garden to be all about entertaining, it features an outdoor kitchen with a stainless steel barbecue and workspace on both sides. “People expect it to be like an indoor kitchen,” Bestall says, “but it’s not. The units get damp inside, so you can’t use it in the same way.”
The cabinets, in fact, contain the gas tank for the barbecue, and they have space for gardening tools and the hose, plus the transformers for the lighting. “Basically, it’s instead of having a shed,” he says.
The cabinets, in fact, contain the gas tank for the barbecue, and they have space for gardening tools and the hose, plus the transformers for the lighting. “Basically, it’s instead of having a shed,” he says.
To stand up to life outside, the backsplash is made from marine-grade stainless steel, the countertop is granite, and the wood is pressure-treated.
How to Get a Built-In Outdoor Grill
How to Get a Built-In Outdoor Grill
“We fitted downlighters above the cooking area,” Bestall says. “There are also uplighters for the planting, for the water feature, and lighting in the walls to wash light across the paving.”
Barbecue: Grand Hall
Subtle Lighting Creates a Glowing Landscape
Barbecue: Grand Hall
Subtle Lighting Creates a Glowing Landscape
The raised beds were replanted with boxwood (Buxus) and yew balls, and underplanted with foamflower (Tiarella). “They’re low, grow in shade and flower in white for a long period of time,” Bestall says.
The plant beside the bifold doors is pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana). “You can eat the petals of the flowers, which taste like pineapple,” he says. “Because it’s a garden for entertaining, I thought it would be fun to grab petals and throw them onto food. The plant does fruit, but probably not well in the U.K. It’s not tender, but it doesn’t like a lot of frost, so the owners bring it inside in the winter.”
The plant beside the bifold doors is pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana). “You can eat the petals of the flowers, which taste like pineapple,” he says. “Because it’s a garden for entertaining, I thought it would be fun to grab petals and throw them onto food. The plant does fruit, but probably not well in the U.K. It’s not tender, but it doesn’t like a lot of frost, so the owners bring it inside in the winter.”
The raised area above the cooking and dining space contains the water feature, which was in the garden before the makeover. “We had to clean and restore it and get it working again,” Bestall says.
The fountain was underplanted with more foamflower and shade-loving hair grass (Deschampsia).
Find outdoor fountains
The fountain was underplanted with more foamflower and shade-loving hair grass (Deschampsia).
Find outdoor fountains
This is a garden fit for entertaining year-round, with the fire pit providing warmth on cool evenings. “The owners wanted the warm glow of flames,” Bestall says. “This is a gas version. It’s made from reclaimed York stone, and the stone contrasts beautifully with the sharp lines of the fencing and paving.”
Alongside the fire pit is English holly (Ilex aquifolium ‘J.C. Van Tol’), pruned into lollipop-style trees and underplanted with more foamflower. The planters were made by a local blacksmith from galvanized metal powder-coated in gray to match the house’s bifold doors.
Browse smoke-free fire pits
Alongside the fire pit is English holly (Ilex aquifolium ‘J.C. Van Tol’), pruned into lollipop-style trees and underplanted with more foamflower. The planters were made by a local blacksmith from galvanized metal powder-coated in gray to match the house’s bifold doors.
Browse smoke-free fire pits
The pleached laurel trees in the far corner are evergreen and were planted to provide privacy. The fencing is a contemporary horizontal design in pressure-treated wood. “You don’t have to do anything with it,” Bestall says, so it’s in keeping with the garden’s low-maintenance credentials.
Share: What are your tips for a garden you can entertain in year-round? Share your photos and experiences in the Comments.
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Share: What are your tips for a garden you can entertain in year-round? Share your photos and experiences in the Comments.
More
Bring on the S’mores With Ideas From These 10 Smoke-Free Fire Pit Ideas
Set Up Your Patio for Ultimate Lounging, Whatever Its Size
Who lives here: A professional couple
Location: North Yorkshire, England
Size: About 33 by 33 feet (10 by 10 meters) in an L- shape
Designer: Lee Bestall of Bestall & Co
The space outside the former coach house looked like a construction yard when the project began, as it had been used as a dumping ground during an interior refurbishment. “The raised beds were there,” Bestall says, “but they were overgrown, and the old soil was infested with weeds and ivy, so we took it out.” The black granite cobbles beyond the beds survived. “The owners wanted to keep them to add a bit of history,” he says. They needed to be both relaid and repointed.