Outdoor kitchen in Richmond, London

This garden in Richmond by Nick & Doug of The Distinctive Gardener takes full advantage of London’s microclimate to grow plants that you really shouldn’t expect to see in the 51^st parallel – unless you’re visiting the glasshouses of neighbouring Kew Gardens, that is. A wide variety of subtropical species are able to thrive in London’s ‘urban heat island’, where a +10°C temperature difference was detected one January night. This means that if you want to step out of your backdoor on a summer’s evening after battling London’s rush hour and feel as if you’re on holiday in East Asia, you can. The outdoor kitchen helps in this regard: Cold beer or bubbly on hand, wafting wood smoke from the kamado, instant heat and power from the gas grill; evenings are easy here.

A towering yew and Cordyline australis cabbage palm are the backdrop for the kitchen, and the yellow daisy flowers of another New Zealand native, Brachyglottis greyi, form a lawn border at the palm’s base. The surrounding beds are full of Asian ferns and evergreens – the mock orange Pittosporum tobira, the shade-loving fronds of Fortune’s cyrtomium, gold-speckled Japanese laurel and the wonderful palmate leaves of Japanese aralia – all beautifully complemented by the tumbled limestone tiles and clay pavers that zone the patio area.