Courtyard Garden in Wood Green.

The garden of this new-build home was increasingly overlooked by loft extensions.  The architect owner wanted to keep the existing patio but to remove the lawn and add layers of planting for interest and privacy all year.  An evergreen, Ilex castaneifolia, is now the central feature to a series of green oak sleeper beds that stack and interlock, the supporting uprights a seen element.  The oak will silver over time, a foil for the largely evergreen planting: Sarcococca confusa, Polystichum Braunii, Luzula sylvatica Marginata and Hakonechloa macra.