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Category: Garden Design

Design, landscaping construction and layouts. Special types of garden and notable design features

Tips for Your Front Garden

Tips for Your Front Garden

Iris

Lovely climbing rose on the front of this house

The Front garden is a great part of English life. Unfortunately there is increasingly a trend to replace the front garden with concrete so people can park a car. But, what better way to start the day than walking through a bit of garden at the front of your house.

The Huge Flower Approach

Front Garden Oxford

If you want to give joy to passers by, go for a real impact and fill it with lots of colour. These dahlias give an excellent summer long flowering display – you will just need to spend time watering. Every bit of space has been maximised with these hanging baskets

The Zen Approach to Front Gardens

Front Garden

A bit of gravel and reserved planting gives a very relaxed feel. It helps sooth the nerves, especially because the work to maintain is much reduced.

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Sculpture in Garden Harmony

Sculpture in Garden Harmony

Sculpture at Harlow Carr

Harlow Carr the RHS garden in Harrogate has a series of gardens through the ages. This sculpture is part of the offering for the Festival of Britain 1951. To me it looks a lot more modern than that but certainly none the worse.

Which came first the sculptural design or the planting scheme? Either way the two combine in a special harmony that needs to be seen. The light wind (yes it can be a light wind in Yorkshire) was moving the oat grass around the leaping fish in a realistic impression of the sea. The colouring on the fish scales was picked out by the flowers that were subservient in the overall design.

Design Tips  from The Harlow Carr Fish

  • Simple planting schemes can be very effective.
  • Don’t use too many varieties of plant.
  • Seed heads can give movement and contrasting effects
  • Link the key elements of any sculpture to the planting in shape, form, colour or style.
  • There was a pond just beyond the fish that linked themes together
  • Consider the impact for each season before starting planting.

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See Barbara Hepworth sculptures in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Japanese Gardens – Key Features

Japanese Gardens – Key Features

Kyoto Garden London

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

On a more war like footing the features in a Samurai garden include those listed here.

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This book explores ‘five classic styles: Stroll Garden, Tea Garden, Courtyard Garden, Dry Garden and Pond Garden. …….. It is an inspiring and accessible guide to designing and creating a Japanese garden…’

Ornamental Grass & Design

Ornamental Grass & Design

There are many families, species and varieties of grass suitable for ornamental purposes. Wether you want a prairie grass-scape, a potted plant or a focal point in a formal garden then there is a grass to suit. Grasses are well suited to a range of landscaping projects.

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The Fescue, Pennisetum, Panticum, Carex, Miscathus, Stipa and many other species are covered below. A recommended variety is given where ever possible along with shore notes. Grasses are perennial unless stated to be annuals.

 

Gardeners Tips Recommended Varieties

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Tips for a Minimalist Garden

Tips for a Minimalist Garden

Skulpturenpark Köln / Cologne Sculpture Garden. Hubert Kiecol: "Rheinwein" (Rhine wine) in Sou Fujimoto's "Garden Gallery" from 2011

Dramatic gardens can be designed on minimalist principles. Minimalist gardens need to look good during all seasons and at all times of the day. Thus all your senses plus horticultural nous need to be considered when setting out your initial design.

Essence of Design in a Minimalist Garden

  • Minimalist gardens need to be immaculate.
  • Minimalist options include a formal or romantic look but you must have the clarity of vision and stick too it.
  • There is no room for ragged edges, dirty gravel or scattered chippings.
  • Minimalist gardens may be designed to look cool and welcoming but check that that is also true for the plants. Often cool plants are planted in hot spots
  • Invest in good quality hard landscaping, it is hard to do minimal on the cheap!

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Lemon Scented Petunias

Lemon Scented Petunias

A good idea that failed in my garden this summer involved Petunias. Rather than plant the brash coloured Petunias I thought I would go for some scent and colour coordinated schemes. So I opted for these Lemon F1 plants I bought as seedlings. The idea was to grow Lemon Verbena and Geranium Lemon crispum alongside the petunias for the leaf scent. The weather was not kind to the petunias and they suffered badly in the ground. Those in pots fared better but still did not excel and had no scented plants with them. I like the idea and will try again next year probably with a different combination.

Self Colours

  • F1 varieties allow us to select single colour Petunias and a new series from Chilterns comes in Lady Purple, Lady  Blue, and Lady Cherry.
  • Thompson Morgan have Mirage Midnight a dark blue and Cascade Blue (double) which I think is purple.
  • Prism Sunshine F1 is another yellow grandiflora as are Baby Duck and Madness.
  • EasyWave™  is another series with self colours in Red, Blue and White
  • Single colour with white frills may be cheating but I like Pirouette Purple, Pirouette Red and Plum Crystal.

Petunia from Thompson & Morgan
Also read Help Growing Petunias

Starting Types of Petunias

  • I find the seeds too fine and hard to germinate consistently. Being a lazy gardener I like ‘kinder plants’ and plug plants to get me started.
  • Petunia ‘Citrus Spritzer’ is a Mini Petunia also called Calibrachoa. Withmasses of flower power producing in excess of 500 blooms per basket, mini Petunia ‘Citrus Spritzer Mixed’ are simply made for hanging baskets. Free flowering and easy to grow, these astonishing calibrachoas make a spectacular summer display. Height and spread is 30cm (12”).
  • Surfinia’ petunias are still the most loved and reliable petunias, producing hundreds of beautifully coloured, trumpet shaped flowers. Support Petunia ‘Surfinia’ on a climbing frame and it will rapidly climb up to 2m/6ft high to create a non-stop tower of colour. These petunia flower from June right through to the first frosts of winter.
  • Fill your patio containers with the wide, citrus yellow, bell shaped flowers of Petunia ‘Fanfare Yellow’ shown below
  • Petunia ‘Waves Mixed’ F1 were a version of the earliest petunias.
  • The ‘most weather resistant’ is claimed to be Petunia miniflora ‘Mini Bella Picotee Mixed with the appearance of stripped flowers.
  • Spreading petunias are only about six inches tall, but spread so rapidly that they cover a huge area in one growing season provided they’re watered and fertilized frequently.
  • If I am lucky enough to get a good crop of seedlings it is usually from a small selection and I miss out on the variety.

 

Old Lupin Photograph for Cottage Gardens

Old Lupin Photograph for Cottage Gardens

An old cottage garden favourite

Old hand coloured glass plate photographs from the USA National Archive which have no current copyright restrictions. The colours are brash but the Lupins and Iris stand out.

The Landscape Architect of these Parterres, Flower beds and Walkways was Horace Trumbauer, in 1930. The Box, Annuals and Ageratums are formally displayed with the fountains as a backdrop.

Both these photographs may look a bit out dated now but it is part of our gardening history. We can see how the yellows and blues work well together and notably how tidy everything seems to be.

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Sensory and Senses Gardens

Sensory and Senses Gardens

All gardens pamper to our senses to a greater or lesser extent. Add features and plants to stimulate sepecific senses   and you will create a sensory and potentially therapeutic garden.

Book CoverMovement and Sound

  • The sound of wind or even a slight breeze can stimulate our aural senses.
  • Grasses are very useful in this situation as the leaves, stems or flowers can rustle together and also make shapes and movement.
  • On a hot summer day pollinating insects may buzz around your flowers.
  • Running water is ever popular in most sensory gardens but take care on behalf of young children.
  • Hard landscaping and path materials should be chosen with sound in mind. Gravel can be nice and crunchy whilst cobbled paths may echo from shoes and boots.

 

Book CoverScent and Smell

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Yellow is a Garden Colour

Yellow is a Garden Colour

Yellow is a Yowser Colour

Yellow can be a difficult colour in the garden and I know of one keen gardener that tries to avoid all Yellow flowers. However this Potentilla or cinqufoil grabbed my attention hence the yowser headline. No wonder the Potentilla is also known as the Buttercup shrub as the strong yellow is reminiscent of the field buttercup.

From a pale cream through to a vibrant sulphur yellow there are numerous plants and trees that offer yellow delights. That excludes all the leaves, pollen, pistil and stamen.

No wonder Yellow is the chosen colour for the The Yellow Book, NGS Gardens to Visit 2016 now surprisingly renamed ‘NGS Gardens to Visit 2016’  – Yellow book from Amazon

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Floral Vistas Plan Before Planting

Floral Vistas Plan Before Planting

floral vista

Greenery is all very well but I like to see swathes of colourful flowers.
I try to envisage how mixed planting will shape up in terms of colour but generally my minds eye falls short when it comes to the imagination department.
The best tip is to keep it simple with only a very limited number of varieties chosen because they are due to flower around the same time.

By contrast my wife, on the other hand, is wedded to green leafed houseplants, green conservatory plants and even green outdoors. (She is also wedded to me and I am not as green as I am cabbage looking so at least I get some colour into the garden)
Perhaps she should grow Gloxinia
Meadow

I do not mind seeing my colour in wild meadows or just as yellow in a field of buttercups. This photo looks like a pointillist painting rather than a snap shot but it was planned by RHS gardeners to look something like this when the ground was laid out.

A friend at our village gardeners club insists she only grows flowers that avoid yellow – I guess she thinks it too garish and she misses out on some grand flowers.

Snowdrop park

Woodland walks in Spring would not be the same if it wasn’t for the Snowdrops, Aconites and Narcissus.
Even wild garlic is better when you can see the white flower.
Is white really a colour some folk ask – to me a resounding yes, just consider a rainbow.