Greenery in Urban London

New Zealand-born James Fraser founded UK landscape firm Avant Gardener in 1990, which continues to operate from a nursery out of Battersea in London. One of Fraser’s latest projects is profiled in the Telegraph, which describes artist Biddy Bunzl’s south-east London garden as “a unique and intuitive partnership between the planting and landscaping.” Stepping out of Bunzl’s back door is like embarking on an adventure into an unknown landscape. Tropical-looking palms and tree palms combine with spiky yuccas and cordylines to give an exotic, jungly feel, interspersed with unusual plants from New Zealand, such as spear-like lancewoods, Pseudopanax. In 2000 Fraser exhibited at the renowned International Festival of Gardens at Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. His designs have also featured in the Sunday Telegraph and  Gardens Illustrated.