IN BRIEF What Residential courtyard garden. Where Utrecht, the Netherlands. Size Around 40 square metres. Soil Light, poor clay soil, full of sand and broken bricks, improved with a compost-topsoil mix where needed; largely a container garden. Climate Temperate but shaded by surrounding buildings. West facing. Hardiness zone USDA 8. What was once an unloved carparking area outside a Utrecht townhouse has been transformed into a lush courtyard garden, enclosed by a living green wall with a luxurious mix that includes Geranium macrorrhizum, Carex elata ‘Aurea’, Soleirolia soleirolii and numerous ferns. The tall Sampei Outdoor lamp by Davide Groppi allows the owner to use this green space to read in the evenings.
Holding court Dutch designer Erik Funneman has used a living wall and green, year-round planting to enclose the tiny courtyard of an urban townhouse WORDS KATE JACOBS PHOTOGRAPHS SIETSKE DE VRIES
