London Holland Park’s water feature in Kyoto Garden.

The composition of enduring elements such as buildings, stones and paths that harmonise with the surroundings are critical factors in a good Japanese garden.

The waterfall plays an important role in Chinese and Japanese landscape. Japan’s earliest known manual of gardening—the Sakuteiki—describes ten different forms of waterfall stipulating the proper height and width of a cascade.

Japanese gardens are a living art form, in which the plants and trees are ever changing. As they grow and mature they are constantly sculpted and pruned to maintain and enhance the overall composition. Over time it is only as good as the careful and qualified maintenance that it receives by those trained in the art of pruning.

A space in the garden for contemplation or meditation fits with the Buddhist and Daoist philosophy

The National Botanic Garden of Wales - Middleton Carmarthen

The worlds largest single-span dome bigger than the Eden project and lots of Lottery funding investment. Well worth seeing where your investment has gone.

Doubled walled garden creating several micro climates and themed borders with a cool oasis at the centre are the key aspects of your visit. There is a strong ecological approach within the garden and several ideas for you to consider when you return to your own environment.

Other Garden Features to See

• Bog Garden & Japanese Garden,
• Bee Garden & Tropical House
• Welsh Rare Plants & Physicians of Myddfai
• Nursery Glasshouses and The Great Glasshouse
• Mediterranean Garden
• Organic Farm, bio-mass furnace & Estate Walks
• Kitchen Garden and activities for children
• Lakes and Dipping Ponds

Other gardens in Wales can be found by clicking here

I am never all that confident about mixing such strong colours in my garden. Needless to say therefore this picture was taken in a public park on the Victoria Embankment Garden. I was chased off the grass before I could get a better picture.

The tropical leaves provide green relief from the purples, reds and hot yellows. Somehow I am not convinced that this colour scheme would fit in my Northern garden.

The Rubeckia hardy perennials do grow with other members of the Compositea clan in my garden. Although many varieties like the Rudbeckia hirtas are recommended as half hardy annuals.

The AGM goes to the Rudbeckia speciosa for its large yellow flowers with a black centre and Rudbeckia triloba Brown Eyed Susan.

1.  Battersea Park

Festival Gardens, Peace Pagoda, Henry Moore sculpture, Exotic trees and 200 acres of lively park and amenities. All these features and more are to be found on the southside of the Thames opposite Chelsea.

2.  Hampstead Heath

Heather and heathland plants attract birds including flamingos and parakeets. The Pergola and Mawson Hill garden planting are worth a visit in this ‘green lung’ of London that has (or suffers) 10 million visits a year.

3.  Regents Park

John Nash created a formal circular design containing Queen Mary’s gardens at the centre. Regents canal, London Zoo (for garden compost no doubt), Primrose Hill, sports facilities and lots of green space are available for exploration.

4.  St. James’s Park

Despite its central location it has an intimacy and accessibility that can be squeezed into a 15 minute short cut to Buckingham Palace or used for a half day picnic and rest of weary legs.

5.  Horniman Museum Gardens

Despite the 5 acre nature trail this is a smaller well maintained garden park with herbaceous borders roses, sunken gardens and floral displays through summer.

Other Parks that missed my top 5

Green Park. Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens (although I should have made space for this).
Plant nursery at West Ham Park, 1810 garden at Holland Park, and Victoria & Mile End Park both close to Mile end tube station.

Further out I would include Richmond Park, Eastbrookend Country Park and Chiswick House

Any space bigger than a bottle can be used to create a garden. This London tennament had a basement flat twelve feet below the pavement and about 5 feet wide. Despite those limitations there was an exotic rock pool, obligatory ferns and phormiums and the London Lizard, the Camden Croc, or the Admiralty Arch Alligator.

Designing with Humour

• Are the bars on these windows to keep the residents in or the London wild life out
• A light touch when adding whimsy to a garden can add many a smile to the passer by
• New materials can be introduced like this fibre glass sculpture
• Painted pottery Gnomes are not to everyones taste but Gnomes need homes
• Bruce Lawton’s Zen garden design tool is a bit of a spoof

www.gardenerstips.co.uk/blog has now reached over 1000 tips on this blog. To celebrate this milestone I have looked for other notable 1000’s and have come up with the RHS Garden Finder. This publication advertises ‘More than 1,000 gardens to visit and enjoy‘ and is a weighty 500 page reference book edited by Charles Quest-Ritson. Available from Amazon for £10.50 including postage

Listing gardens to visit by country and county within the United Kingdom it also lists all the NCCPG National Collections. I guess the Philadelphus collections at Pershore College and The Hollies Park Leeds will smell just wonderful on the first of July.

Not to be out done on the tips front Readers Digest publish ‘1001 Hints and Tips for the Garden’ with more contributors than you can shake a pea stick at.

Amazon also sell a couple of books celebrating one thousand including ‘1000 Fuchsias’ by Meip Nijhuis and ‘Emeralds 1000 Green Flowers and 500 Choice Green Foliage Plants’ by Karen Platt

In addition to the RHS here are some web links to organisations maintaining gardens or retaining documents relating to gardens include:

Garden History Society (www.gardenhistorysociety.org

Kew Gardens http://www.kew.org/library/

English Heritage http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.2

Museum of Garden History (www.cix.co.uk/~museumgh/index.htm

National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/

UK Database of Historic Parks and Gardens (www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/landscapes/ukpg/database/index.htm

Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) (www.scan.org.uk/

Association of Garden Trusts (www.gardenstrusts.co.uk

A national organization representing County Gardens Trusts that are actively engaged in conserving, researching, documenting and caring for the heritage of parks, gardens and designed landscapes.

Fountain in Oxford Botanic gardens.

One of the best ways to enhance a garden is through the addition of a water feature. Water brings a new element to the garden. In this photo the sunlight has caught the spray from the fountain, lighting up the picture.

Benefits of Adding Water Feature to garden

• Water helps create interest
• Creates a focal point in the garden
• Sound is reassuring soothing; it adds an extra element to the garden
• Children will love them.

Topiary is the art of training, clipping, trimming and pruning evergreen trees and shrubs into shapes. Often the result is a formal geometric shape that enhances the design and formality in a garden. If you are interested in Topiary or want a day trip then below is a list of gardens worth visiting. Should your interest be deeper then the ‘European Topiary Society’ has a lot of detailed information on the web site.

http://www.boxwoodandtopiary.org/index.htm

Top Topiary Sites to Visit

• Avebury Manor – Wiltshire - former 12c Benedictine Priory
• Canons Ashby - Northampton – Old fruit varieties & medicinal border
• Chastleton – Oxfordshire – National Trust property near Stowe Landscape garden
• Crathes Castle Garden, Aberdeenshire www.nts.org.uk
• Gawthorpe Hall – Burnley – Urns designed by Pugin
• Lytes Cary Manor –Somerset – Raised walk overlooking Orchard
• Levens Hall – South Lakeland http://www.levenshall.co.uk/
• Hampton Court Palace Surrey www.hrp.org.uk

Plants Used for Topiary

• Box Boxus
• Holly Ilex
• Lonicera nitida Shrubby honeysuckle ‘Baggins Gold’
• Leyland Cyprus Leylandii Cupressocyparis
• Privet Ligustrum
• Portugal Laurel Prunus Lustanica
• Yew Taxus baccata

Tips for Topiarists

• Use small leaved evergreen shrubs and trees
• Try Bay trees for clipping
• Exotic shapes and animals can be formed by using a wire shape
• Take care with clippers if you are stretching
• For a spiral effect use string tied to the top and circled around and down to outline the shape prior to  cutting with  topiary shears.

Real gardeners don’t want to go on holiday between April and September as there is too much fun to be had in the garden at home. There are other matters that come into play and well planed holiday can also give a keen gardener new interests and ideas.

Temptations are now wide spread in the form of organised tours for example:

• Cruise with Alan Titchmarch down the Danube 3 May 2009 www.cruise.co.uk

• Cruise around the Caribbean and see botanical gardens in November 2008 with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines via Victoria Travel 0800 0916498

• Try Page & Moy in Italy to see Azaleas & Camellias at Lake Maggiore or The Gardens of La Mortella www.pageandmoy.com

Alternatively you can make your own arrangements which retains flexibility and the opportunity to please other members of the family. In addition to UK resorts like  Cornwall and the Scilly Isles there are many hidden gardens in The Languedoc region of France, Monet’s Garden at Giverny, Gardens of Tuscany, the Italian Lakes, Sorrento, Ischia,  and Green Spain to list but a few.

With this months ‘The Garden Magazine’ I have just received a free supplement ‘The Garden Lovers Guide to Spain’ published by the RHS. I will read that and compare the suggestions to the great Portuguese Island destination of Madeira where the plants and gardens are outstanding.