Orangery & garden · 2025
The Winter Orangery
A glass room for citrus trees at the end of a long lawn, and a winter garden planted all around it.
Garden plan, 1:200Sint-Martens-Latem
- Garden
- 2,400 m²
- Orangery
- 48 m²
- Planting
- 3 seasons
- Completed
- Spring 2025
Starting with the lawn
The family wanted somewhere to keep their lemon trees in winter. We suggested walking the garden first. The old lawn ran 70 metres from the house to a line of limes, and nothing stopped the eye along the way.
So the orangery went to the far end, facing back towards the house, and the lawn became a route: a hedge room with a pond, a gravel court with two benches, and then the glass room, lit up on winter evenings.
South elevation · garden sectionOak frame, old glass, terracotta floor
A room that keeps the heat
The frame is green oak on a low wall of blue stone. Arched panes face south; the north wall is solid and holds a small wood stove. A terracotta floor laid on sand stores the day's warmth for the citrus at night.
Around it we planted a winter garden — witch hazel, hellebores, sweet box and snowdrops under the limes — so the walk to the orangery is worth taking in January.