Garden Design Ideas for Chelsea Gardens

The gardens behind Chelsea's terraced and semi-detached houses are usually long and narrow rather than spacious, and that shapes the whole design brief - success here tends to come from zoning a small space well, not from trying to fill a large one.

What tends to work well

As with extensions, access is the main cost driver for garden work in Chelsea - terraced streets without side access mean paving, soil and turf have to be carried through the house, adding labour time a detached property with a side gate simply wouldn't face. Mature trees near the Royal Hospital Chelsea and King's Road or inside the Chelsea, Chelsea Park Carlyle and Cheyne conservation areas - the borough has over 100 in total are sometimes covered by a Tree Preservation Order too, restricting removal or heavy pruning without council permission.

For the narrow plots typical of Chelsea, a landscaper who plans zones (dining, planting, storage) along the length of the garden rather than trying to fit everything in a single open layout usually gets a better result than a generic "full redesign" template - it's worth asking to see photos of gardens of a similar size and shape before you commit.

What it typically costs

• Basic tidy-up (turfing, planting, fencing): roughly £1,500-£4,000
• Mid-range redesign (patio, borders, new fencing, lighting): roughly £5,000-£12,000
• Full landscaping (hard landscaping, decking, irrigation, garden room base): £12,000-£25,000+

Rear gardens that back onto a kitchen extension are often designed together with the extension itself, since the level of the new patio or doors usually needs to work with the extension's floor height.