The Garden of Memories is a small garden in Hackney that grounds the past four years of nomadic plant collection and thrifting into a cohesive, relaxing space. Plants that carry stories, plants that carry memories.

The brief was direct: to realign the existing garden around a fire pit, design & build a new deck, and most importantly, land collected plant species into a cohesive palette. The outcome, a garden that becomes a permanent home for human and non-humans alike.

Now complete, and aged by London’s summer sun, the deck reads as a platform for observation and rest, a soft surface to lie on, to exercise, or spend an evening with a drink. It also offers up informal seating around the fire pit, which grasses, verbena and carefully placed Betula are arranged around.

Lying or sitting on the deck puts the new planting at even closer range. Each plant arrived from somewhere, be it a windowsill, a balcony or a flat since given up. For the client, as the lucky users of the garden, seeing pallet together prompts stories and memories of their collection to be told again, rather than quietly fading into the noise of the city.