A Dutch Patio Garden

On a recent family visit we stayed at my grandparents house. It's a relatively new build, around 5 years old and it's effectively built around the patio. It's a rather innovative design, compact yet spacious.

This has given Oma (my grandmother) the opportunity to design a patio garden that is not only functional, but also has a series of intimate spaces that are complete in themselves, yet are part of a cohesive whole.

I thought I'd take a few photos and share them with you along with my thoughts on the patio garden.

The fashion in the Netherlands at the moment is to have very small plants, for instance the Violas that were familiar with, but also this Hellebore - which for me was a novelty. It's Helleborus lividus 'Silver Edge'. They also have tiny indoor hydrangeas, not photographed.

This is the main part of the patio, where we all sit. The containers are all on wheels, which makes them easy to move if you want to reconfigure the space or to move the containers for maintenance. Either side of the water feature are Eucalyptus trees.

Following the wall to the right, we come to a seperate feature. Some of the items here, for example, the people sat on the benches in the corner of the space have come from my grandparents previous house, but the colours tie in nicely with the wreath and candle box, looking right at home.

Turning around again to the right are the containers used to hide the bins. But to be fair they are a feature in their own right. Oma has used another candle box to tie the space to the previous photo we saw, but this space feels more contemporary to me. I really like the containers and plants used to create height, which was achieved by the Eucalyptus in the main space.

What I like about this garden is that there's always something to draw the eye, but not to the extent where the patio is cluttered. I think the patio has been really well utilised. Sitting there you get a freedom that comes with a feeling of space, but looking around it feels cosy.

I really like what Oma and Opa have done with the patio garden, especially as I've seen it evolve from a space left behind from a new build to the garden that we see today. I'm bound to be biased, so I'd like to know what you think, so feel free to leave comments :)