How much do you value your outdoor space? Well, that probably depends on whether you live in a crowded city or an expanse of countryside.

This design, two small patches of roof space outside a two-bed flat in
London South Kensington, may not be big in scale, but the budget
certainly was If you want something similar, you’ll need the best
part of £40,000.

When property prices in the capital soared, they took gardens with them if you can add value to your home; you can persuade your building society to free up some giddying spending power. Enter John Rice, co-founder of Urban Roof Gardens. Coming from an antiques and interiors background, and working with an architect and a horticulturalist, he set up the specialist design agency three years ago. We really pushed the boat on this one, Rice says with a smirk. It was a lot of fun.

The starting point was a half-octagon shape on top of the bay window of the flat downstairs. It was already a roof, but was far from being up
to scratch. Still, the shape suggested the solution, and Rice put in an
octagonal raised seating area, with fire place in the centre and
folding doors leading from the living room.

The space on the other side of the lounge was trickier. The small patch
of asphalt had planning permission to be a terrace, but the balustrade
could not reach the very end, closing in the space even further. It’s
the most common restriction we have to deal with, says Rice.
Neighbours don’t want people on the terrace to be able to peer down on them, so you have to contain them away from the edge. Nonetheless, Rice and his team went to work.

You’d never think you could build an outdoor kitchen and dining room up here, but they did. A short worktop was built at one end, with a fitted gas barbecue, sink and Moroccan water feature. The cupboard
underneath hides the gas canister while, overhead, a sail shade
provides shelter. Next, a dining table was fitted, with benches that
slide underneath, to save space. But what of the space the other side
of the balustrade, where people must keep off. Well, it was simple
really we used it as a planting area, says Rice.

Over to his horticulturalist, Lisa Andrews. It was decided from the
start that the two spaces should feel Moroccan, an idea drawn from the
ornate carved wooden arches a previous resident had left in the living
room. So, Says Andrews, we put in a Moroccan cultivar of mint,
Mentha spicata var. crispa, which produces white flowers, and is
excellent in tea. As for the rest, she borrowed ideas from prairie
planting to find specimens that can take a battering from the wind,
such as red switch grass (Panicum virgatum ?Rotstrahlbusch?) which
waves in the breeze, and Achillea ?Pink Lady?, with low, silvery
foliage and pink flowers.

But a garden like this is not just about flowers. When the built-in
Bang & Olufsen outdoor sound system is, and the mood lighting
(uplighters from the plants, downlighters from the walls) is set from
the remote control, the mint will be handy for a few late-night
mojitos.