An outdoor room with a fire bowl

The space between a brick and flint barn and a new oak-clad garden room had to work as a room in its own right: somewhere to eat, to sit out late, and to light a fire well into October.

Sandstone paving and gravel keep the floor calm and free-draining. Slatted oak screens lift the boundary just enough for privacy without closing the courtyard in, and a multi-stem birch brings height and dappled light without casting the borders into shade.

The planting runs deliberately hot. Nasturtium, orange geums, agastache and achillea play against deep purple salvias, with verbena bonariensis and stipa gigantea rising through everything so the borders move in the wind and catch the low evening sun.