Inner-City Oasis

House & Garden

A big thanks to House and Garden for featuring this beautiful oasis in their November issue. Once, this little pocket of the city was a no-man’s-land — a sliver of space pressed between a house and a garage, more forgotten than found. Now it hums. The air moves differently here. Water murmurs against jade tiles. Light drifts and flickers through palm fronds.

Landscape designer Adam Robinson calls it “a functional haven of outdoor living.” But that undersells it. This is a small act of transformation the sort that makes you breathe slower.

When the owners came to Adam, they wanted zones, yes places to sit, eat, cook, and rest, but mostly they wanted rhythm. They wanted to follow the sun through the day, to trace light from one green pocket to another.

So, Adam broke the space apart, or maybe stitched it together, with shifting patterns underfoot and clusters of plants that rise and soften and glow. Paths tilt and turn. Palms that once stood awkwardly are now anchors, their strappy leaves throwing dappled sunshine across stone and skin.

There’s a dining corner. A barbecue balanced on a cantilevered ledge. A water feature that draws the eye and quiets the noise. And everywhere, a conversation between texture and temperature, glazed tile against rough bark, shadow against shine.

In the north-west, an olive tree in a great pot holds court, its silvery leaves catching the late light. Pencil pines stand sentinel beside it. Below them, clouds of Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ scatter white stars. Elsewhere, a dragon tree stretches, sculptural and strong, a soft barrier that shelters the seating zone.

And at the heart of it all, the fountain. An arch, framed, tiled in a vibrant green, its pattern recalls faraway places. The water slips down, trickling, the sound of something older than the city.

“Fountains, greenery, colour, pattern, that’s the spirit of Moroccan gardens,” says Adam. “They’re about coolness. Stillness. A kind of quiet joy.”

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