The garden at 5 Burbage Road, London, SE24, is inward-looking, sheltered and above average in size for a town garden. It is divided into several sections with paths, screens, evergreen trees and shrubs to disguise its rectangular shape, blur the boundaries, and provide a strong structure to lend stasis to the whole.

There are parts of the garden in deep shade, hot sunny spaces and areas thickly mulched with gravel. This diversity allows for a wide range of plants to be grown, many of which are on the tender side but flourish in the sheltered environment: varieties of Abutilon, Prostanthera, Acacia (mimosas), Drimys, Salvia, Acnistus australis (with its astonishing blue flowers) and the rare white Bergenia emiensis are examples. Great use is made of scented plants - Lonicera purpurus (the winter-flowering honeysuckle), Daphne aureomarginata, Sarcococca (several kinds) and Viburnum and, in the summer months, many heat-loving aromatic plants come into their own. The planting is dense with great variety of leaf shape and texture, self-sown wild flowers are kept selectively, and all sorts of movable containers are used. An annual autumn planting of bulbs ensures a regular display of narcissus, fritillaries, cyclamen and tulips each spring, a delight that is one of the easiest to achieve.

The garden has been photographed by Jonathan Buckley, Hugh Palmer, Marianne Majerus, Geraint Lewis, Tom Scott, Noel Kavanagh and others. For information about open days refer to the NGS Yellow Book and The Good Gardens Guide. Private visits to the garden are by appointment. Visits by groups from the UK and abroad are frequently arranged.

'We've had to get up to a lot of tricks to make this long town garden more interesting... a steady progression into the series of different 'rooms' you now see.' Rosemary Lindsay in conversation with Elspeth Thompson for the 'My Space' series in the Sunday Telegraph.

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