Hollyhock Gardens

Small gardens that look after themselves, shown the day they were finished and a year later

I'm Ada Mensah. I design and plant gardens behind terraces and cottages, mostly the size of a tennis court or smaller, for people who would rather sit in them than weed them.

A narrow paved path between deep borders of red and orange flowers leading to a small greenhouse.
The glasshouse pathTerrace garden, 2024
A large weathered stone urn surrounded by orange marigolds, red zinnias and green foliage.
The old urnCourtyard, 2023
Tall pink and cream hollyhocks in flower against a pale sky.
Hollyhocks by the back doorCottage, 2022
A single white folding chair on a small lawn between leafy borders, a stone house behind.
One chairTown garden, 2024
A brick path running under a wooden pergola covered in climbing plants.
Under the pergolaTerrace garden, 2023
A lush border of tall grasses and shrubs beside a lawn, a small stone cottage behind.
The long borderCottage, 2022
A cottage garden in full sun: blue and purple flowers along a path, a lawn, and a row of stone houses behind.

The same garden, a year apart

A man leaning over a new raised timber bed, planting small plants against a grey fence.

The day it was finished · May

A curving brick path through dense borders of yellow, pink and purple flowers.

A year later · June

  • Bare soil gone. The plants were set close so the ground would be covered in the first summer, and it was.

  • Watering: every day for the first six weeks, then never again, except in the dry July.

  • Weeding: forty minutes a month, which the owners say they have come to enjoy.

A gloved hand holding a young plant with its root ball of dark soil.

How I work

I come and sit in the garden for an hour, at the time of day you use it most. Then I draw one plan, not three. If you don't like it, I draw another, and that is included.

I plant it myself, with one helper, in two or three days. And I come back twice in the first year, in May and September, to move what needs moving. Every garden needs that; almost no one pays for it.

What it costs

What it costs

The visit

£120

An hour in the garden and a page of notes, taken off the design fee if we go ahead.

The design

£650–1,100

One planting plan, a plant list, a second version if needed. Depends on size.

Planting

quoted

Plants at nursery price plus two days' work, and the two visits in the first year.

Before we start

What I don't do
Walls, patios, decking or drainage. I'll recommend a landscaper and draw the planting around their work.
When
Design any time. Planting in spring or autumn, never in August, and I'll say no to a July planting however nicely you ask.
Children and dogs
Tell me at the visit. There are plants that will take a football and plants that won't.
How far
Within about twenty miles of town, so the two visits in the first year are actually visits.