Creating a London garden: our guide for first timers

Until just a year ago David Sexton had never owned a garden. But after transforming the overgrown plot at his Harringay home, he's now a convert
25 February 2016

For seven years, I lived in a sunny first-floor flat in Highbury Hill without any garden whatsoever. All I ever grew there was basil in pots from the supermarket. During this time I was, however, becoming ever more obsessed with gardening in all its forms, incessantly reading about it, visiting gardens and making notes for future use.

© Photographs by Graham Hussey
David Sexton has transformed his garden with lots of plants that he sourced from across London
The plot at David's home in the Harringay Ladder district has been transformed in just one year
A simple plan
Cosmos Purity
gaura
lavender stoechas alba
anemone Honorine Jobert
verbena bonariensis
Robinia x slavinii Hillieri
pear
crab apple
cherry
magnolia x loebneri Leonard Messel
Mme Alfred Carrière
Gloire de Dijon
Alister Stella Grey
Austin rose
Mutabilis
General Schablikine
sweet peas
Shirley
Ladybird
White Cloud
David has been surprised at how easy it is to grow plants in London
Bordering on obsession
trachelospermum
honeysuckle
Lilium regale
daphne
x atlantica Eternal Fragrance
affinis
sylvestris
erigeron
violas
phlox
salvias
scabious
erysimums
mutabilis
Bowles' Mauve
euphorbias
verbena
rigida
hastata
bonariensis
flax
Californian Tree Poppy
romneya coulteri
Photographs by Graham Hussey

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