At RHS Hampton Court 2015, Egyptian Limestone featured in The Macmillan Legacy Garden and Living Landscapes City Twitchers Garden. We look at how two top designers created very different moods with the same stone.
About Egyptian Limestone
Egyptian Limestone has warm beige tones and subtle colour variations that, with gentle veining, add character to sawn paving. Like the much sought-after Jura limestone, it contains small fossils and markings that give it an antique feel, but Egyptian limestone is much more budget-friendly, giving a patio a luxury look at a fraction of the price.
The MacMillan Legacy Garden
The Macmillan Legacy Garden was intended as a design for a shady spot, so the pale-coloured paving was carefully chosen for its contribution to dimly lit areas.
“Egyptian limestone brings light into the garden," says designer Ann-Marie Powell. The colour also goes really well with birch bark as it's got a slight apricot shade.”
Using light-coloured paving like this is a way to add uplighting to plants, as well as lead the eye around the design, as the path does in the picture below.
Photo: Helen Gazeley
Ann-Marie went for bespoke paving slabs, sandblasted and brushed. Generally wide with narrow tread depth, they were laid with birch litter in between. This gave the feeling that the Egyptian limestone paving and the trees had been companions for several seasons.
Variations in the slab sizes encouraged the visitor to slow up when reaching the pool and crossing the rill.
The even colouring and sawn surface of the Egyptian limestone create a contemporary feel, especially with Ann-Marie's emphasis on the straight edges of the slabs and the use of plank paving. Anne-Marie balanced the straight lines with curved steps and paths and round green seats like the one in the picture below.
Photo: Helen Gazeley
City Twitchers Garden
In the Summer Gardens category, The Living Landscapes City Twitchers Garden was designed by Sarah Keyser of CouCou Design and built by Living Landscapes. In a design completely different from Ann-Marie's Sarah used Egyptian limestone paving to show it's possible to combine contemporary design with wildlife-friendliness.
Photo: Jonathan Ward
Here standard-sized paving slabs were put together and then sawn to create round islands in the lawn of chamomile. Mortar lines are matched or, where that's not possible, strictly parallel across the garden. The work was done on site so that Sarah could have more flexibility in size and placement.
Photo: Jonathan Ward
“I wanted the stone as light and evenly coloured as possible,” she says. With these needs in mind, she had considered porcelain paving, but decided she preferred the finish on limestone and the fact that it's a natural stone.
“I asked for sandblasting and brushing because I wanted it really matt and chalky. It's nice that London Stone offer different finishes, as it gives you different colour options.” (Without the sandblasting and brushing, the stone would be a much more prominent beige.)
Photo: Helen Gazeley
The result is a contemporary feel, where the paving picks up the white-washed cedar fencing and makes a contrast with the woven willow. It won the garden, put together by Living Landscapes, Silver Gilt.
What we at London Stone particularly love is that two gardens using the same Egyptian limestone have created such very different moods.
Spot the ball: Look carefully at the City Twitchers' rear border and and you might see a white spherical bee station – it's there to provide sugar solution for hungry bees when nectar is in short supply.
