alking into Selina Lake’s town garden, her commitment to creating a country cottage theme immediately becomes apparent with its abundance of blowsy fragrant blooms including roses, foxgloves and peonies. It is very much inspired by classic English gardens and their bountiful rose arches, lush lawns and plenitude of native plants, shrubs and trees. But this is a garden with a modern twist – Selina, together with her husband Dave, has used black as an accent colour to stain the decking, shed and even sun loungers. “I like to use black as it’s a great tone for blending into the background against all the different greens,” she says. “I also think it adds a contemporary take on cottage garden style. I first got the idea to use black accents in the
