This was a competition garden at the Malvern Show. We had to paint a picture in plants and I chose to replicate Cezanne. I was delighted to be people’s choice for this competition enabling me to win £1000 for our school garden.
I mirrored some of the formal planting by the house and used the silver birches and curving borders to soften the planting and move away from the symmetry by the house. Creating a lush garden that can be viewed from the house.
This lovely garden has some very mature trees casting shadow and absorbing water. We have slowly transformed the garden from barren borders to luscious shade loving plants in harmony with their surroundings.
A family Garden
This garden was a delight to build as it was an old pub carpark with masses of rubble. We transformed it to family garden that includes a small vegetable plot, a patio area, children’s play area and a gravel garden. The gravel garden takes you into the garden as enabling you to play hopscotch down the path to the rest of the garden.
This was simply designing a patio area to suit the surrounding garden and work with the house and the new conservatory. Old reclaimed York stone works beautifully in this situation.
Joe Swift and Mark Diacono entertained us enormously in the Good Life Pavilion; in just 25 minutes Joe Swift showed us how to transform a rectangular garden into a lovely garden design, meanwhile Mark created cocktails using equal amounts of something flat and something fizzy, strawberries and a little grinding of the seed from the Schezuan bush. We all had a nibble of the seed and it had us all laughing as our tongues went numb and then exploded into a tingling sensation. My children rushed off to purchase the Stevia herb that was dropped into the cocktail as the leaves taste of sugar, ideal for adding sweetener to cocktails or a pudding, the low fat alternative to sugar.
Little packets seeds of all kinds were there to tempt children and adults. Pennard Plants packets had lovely illustrations perfect for little presents.
Strolling away from the pavilion we hit the largest vegetables I’ve ever seen, onions the size of dinner plates, cabbages, marrows, leeks etc.. James and the Giant peach came alive at this moment.
The autumn is always stimulating and walking around seeing so much blazing colour is as tempting to me as a sweet shop is to children. I walked away with my 20 plug plants from Chyrsanthemum direct, a vibrant collection of lime green ‘Green Mist’, reds ‘Quinty’ and ‘Misty Red’ and orange ‘Lexy’. Whilst I have always thought of Chysanthemums as an old ladies plant or a hospital bouquet this has changed over the years and I must confess I rather enjoy the blousy rush of colour that these plants give us in the autumn.
So inspired from the fabulous show I’m now off to plant my sweet peas, onions sets and garlic bulbs. My chrysanthemums I’ll pot up and nurture this winter and although they may not be quote as big and bold as the vegetables we saw they should bring me a vibrant autumn bouquet next year.
As a little preparation for Christmas, go out and buy the Narcissi ‘Paper White’, a multi head narcissi with a delicious scent, and plant then up in a pretty pot and place in a dark area 8-10 weeks you should have a beautiful table decoration.
Sarah Raven sprays some twigs with silver and places these between them for support which will give you an added festive look.
The leaves are turning and soon the winds will be pulling them off the trees, so why not take advantage of this and get the children outdoors and collect as many different types of leaves as possible. You can then use them for a variety of pictures:-
This part of the garden used to be an unproductive vegetable patch. As the family like to sit out and enjoy the garden I transformed it into a seating area for everyone to enjoy.
As we prepare for warm winter evenings in front of the fire there are just a few jobs you could do to on those lovely clear winter days.
I’d love to hear about your upcoming project. Give me a call today on 0771 858 6105 or contact me via this website.
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