The magnificent terrace garden of a townhouse in Bruges
Piet Blanckaert seems to have a monopoly over the gardens in his home town of Bruges. In the old part of the city alone, with its quaint cobbled streets and picturesque canals, he has designed more than 30 small gardens that are hidden away behind historic façades. As we walk round the town to visit some of these gardens, he greets people with cheerful bonhomie.
Piet set up his landscape design business in 1979 and, having lived in Bruges all his life, has become a well-known local figure in demand for his exacting eye and elegant schemes. Although he designs large private gardens throughout Belgium and the rest of Europe, Piet is very fond of these tiny, jewel-like spaces in Bruges, all ingeniously created to make the best use of limited space. ‘Small gardens are a puzzle in 3D,’ he says. ‘You need all the pieces, big and small, and every centimetre counts. You have to incorporate all the elements in a few square metres – it’s very intensive. But for small spaces, you need less of everything, so you can choose top-quality materials.’
Ten years ago Piet was commissioned to design an unusual L-shaped garden for clients who wanted to link what were two separate properties with gardens that backed onto one another. While now it is a cool, contemporary outdoor space defined by green architecture, it had been an unloved area, much of it covered in concrete and used for parking, necessitating eight days of drilling before any other work could start.
The main building is a historic townhouse, parts of which date back to the 16th century, while the other is a modern, glass-fronted building housing a swimming pool. The two areas are quite different in feel because of the contrasting styles of architecture, but they needed to work together. ‘The connecting point is a covered terrace with an outdoor fireplace,’ says Piet. ‘From there, you can see into both parts of the garden.’
The space in front of the original house, with a terrace of reclaimed Belgian Blue stone, is more traditional in feel. It has flowering shrubs and evergreens shaped into domes and soft hummocks. The other area, by the modern building, is minimal and geometric, with hedges and trees clipped into straight lines around a simple rectangular lawn.
The terrace garden is wide rather than long, with very little depth, the view cut short by a boundary wall. To create the illusion of a larger space, Piet designed a long, narrow canal with small water spouts along its length for the soothing sound of moving water. A two-metre-wide bed behind the canal is home to a number of flowering shrubs, including Cornus kousa ‘Miss Satomi’, C. kousa var. chinensis and Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Mariesii’, with a lush underskirt of ferns and hostas, all of which thrive in the semi-shade of the courtyard space. In front of the canal, box plants have been clipped into cloud forms, culminating in a handsome chess-piece yew specimen like a finial at one end. Soft-textured herbs are planted for contrast in front of the box, with old-fashioned roses and Clematis viticella ‘Madame Julia Correvon’ next to the house.
The design process always starts with the client. ‘It’s important to know what they are expecting of their garden,’ says Piet. ‘Will they come out and enjoy the space, will they look after it themselves, or will they mostly look at it from inside the house? Sometimes they mention just one element and the whole thing spins off that. I love to design; ideas just flow from my fingertips.’ For Piet, a successful garden is one that is actually used by his clients. ‘The owners of this garden have busy lives,’ he says. ‘Before I made it, they went out biking to relax. Now they love working in it and spending time just enjoying it’.
Piet Blanckaert: blanckaert.com
Eva Nemeth1/8Flowering Cornus kousa ‘Miss Satomi’ creates a haze of colour in spring.
Eva Nemeth2/8Viewed from the covered terrace, statuesque yew topiary provides a focal point in the courtyard beside the townhouse.
Eva Nemeth3/8The trees by the reclaimed Belgian Blue stone terrace are clipped and pollarded so as not to dominate the space.
Eva Nemeth4/8Edged by a serpentine hedge of cloud-pruned box, a narrow canal reflects vegetation and sky. It creates an illusion of space in the small courtyard.
Eva Nemeth5/8A pink rose climbs through a heptacodium.
Eva Nemeth6/8Hummocks of greenery form a soft contrast to the canal’s geometric lines.
Eva Nemeth7/8The delicate flowers of Cornus kousa ‘Miss Satomi’ bring subtle colour to this lush, green garden.
Eva Nemeth8/8The area adjacent to the modern, glass-fronted building is more contemporary in feel, with yew hedges clipped in strong geometric lines adding definition.
