Memoirs Of A Garden Designer

Flowers still in my garden

2012-01-01T15:29:00.001Z

When I wrote my last blog about four weeks ago reviewing plants still flowering in my garden during December, I had not expected that by Christmas Day and even by New Year's Day, there would still be a display of flowering attire in the borders. How stange to have my front door dressed for Christmas yet a pot of red pelargoniums from the summer is still managing to flower it's heart out nearby! I took all these photos on Boxing Day and have checked that everything is still in flower today, 1st January 2012.

Since my last post, there has been several heavy frosts in the garden but plants like my Agapanthus aficanus are still haning on; yes, maybe looking a bit worse for wear, but still in flower. A Christmas Day walk with the dog in nearby woods revealed a clump of small hazel trees which still had green leaves on as well as catkins starting to form. Extrodinary!

A quick list for the techies amongst you of flowers in my garden, including some plants not photographed:

Agapanthus africanus
Centranthus ruber
Cynara caradunculus 'Cardy' (in the green waiting to flower)
Helleborus x hybridus
Jasminium nudiflorum
Margueritte
Nigella damascena
Osteospurmum
Pelargonium: bedding, ivy leafed in hanging baskets and species
Primula vulgaris
Raspberries with fruit
Rose 'Blairii No. 2'
Salvia 'Mainacht'
Vinca major

December In Bloom

2011-12-05T16:24:00.002Z

Agapanthus africanus

Ah, the sound of Christmas carols are merrily wafting around the shops and out of the radio at home. People are looking a bit frantic and clutching armfuls of brightly coloured wrapping paper and oodles of bags in Cambridge as they set about their quest for the perfect Christmas present; have to say, my little stall on Cambridge market is doing very good trade as everyone really likes the range of unique and different gardening and home items I have there. As well as every Wednesday and Thursday, I'm also doing Saturdays before Christmas (but not Christmas Eve), so do pop in and say hello if you are in town.

Osteospurmum

Pelargoinums

Helenium 'Sahin's Early'

Salvia 'Mainacht'

We may very well be getting into our 'deep and crisp and even' period, but as I walked around my garden last Friday (2nd December, the day before my birthday), blow me down with a feather - there's a lot of flowers blooming happily here! We've had a couple of frosts in this rural corner of Cambridgeshire but plants are standing up well to the weather and the battering winds (the joys of an exposed garden). I haven't even put winter bedding into my hanging baskets yet which are still looking dazzling, but slightly subdued, with trailing pelargoinums: the dahlias are now black in the borders so must lift them before any snow arrives, ensuring they dry out well and are stored in a place where the frost won't touch them. There's even a bit of autumn colour still clinging to almost bare branches from a couple of sheltered Acer griseum trees and a new Parrotia persica, which I put in about a month ago, is looking rather glorious. This large shrub/small tree is something I have coveted for some time and I was really pleased to track one down recently at Crocus.

Salvia 'Indigo'

Raspberries

Margueritte

Chrysanthemums

Gaura lindheimeri

Blairi no. 2 rose

It will be interesting to see how the borders maintain, or not, their flowering as December progresses. I'll keep you posted!

Pelargoinums in pots

Nigella

Christmas tree de-lights

2011-11-18T12:58:00.001Z

An early Thursday morning start in Cambridge this week to set up my market stall in the city centre and I'm not the only early bird around. People on the delightful veg stalls on the market are already setting out tempting displays of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables, with many items sourced locally; there is a nose twitching waft of freshly baked bread from that stall, mingling with freshly cooked bacon from the market cafe. The pavements are being thoroughly cleaned outside the Guildhall which overlooks the historic market and as I begin to unload my gardening and home products for my own stall, the fish van from Lowestoft has just turned up with an amazing selection of fresh and smoked seafood, including Brancaster mussels and the best smoked kippers I've ever had - and it's not even seven o'clock yet!

But wait, there's someone else turning up in vans and ooh look, a big Christmas tree has appeared overnight next to the Guildhall! Excitement mounts as market traders get into a festive mood, looking up in glee as we set out our stalls, as we realise what the men in the vans are doing - putting the lights on the Christmas tree.

Now, this can be a tricky project, especially with a tree that big so if you find yourself wondering how the lights go on a large Christmas tree and you want to be as accomplished as the team from Cambridge City Council who put them on today, here is my easy eight point plan to follow:

1. Arrive early to get the best parking spot next to the tree and also helpful if shops are closed and no one is shopping

2. Lay the lights out and check all the bulbs are working, replacing any that are not before you put the lights on the tree

3. Starting at the bottom, wind the string of lights all the way around the tree. [This is obviously where I go wrong at home with a somewhat smaller tree, as I start putting the lights on at the top!]

4. Get lots of help to put the lights on, it's a big tree remember

5. For those tricky places where you can't reach the tree, stand on something solid and stable to position the lights. Don't forget to wear a hard hat and a dashing hi-viz jacket as this will not only make you look very important, it will keep the Health & Safety people happy, too

6. Then get someone else to do this on the other side of the tree

7. Or even do both sides together as it saves time

8. Make sure you get all the tree covered in lights, even the top bit

Et voila - sorted, one Christmas tree with lights!

The big switch on in Cambridge is this Sunday, 20th November, with apparently a 'packed programme of entertainement' expected on the day (according to the local media) in the market square: the Christmas tree will sparkle with its beautifully positioned lights when all the Christmas lights get switched on from the Guildhall at 4pm.

Market daze

2011-06-09T12:40:00.004+01:00

Well, knuckles have been well and truly rapped as I haven't done a blog post since last November (or around seven months, if you want to be pedantic). 2011 is a year off show garden duties* for me which has meant I have had the chance to concentrate more on my business, my own garden and even my family. All are doing very nicely and benefiting from the vastly improved input into their well being. I could use the excuse that I had 'blogger's blackout' in my attempt to make amends for my blog absence, but I have in fact been rather busy.

As well as armfuls of exciting garden design projects, I started a new venture this year. Every Wednesday since February I have had a stall on Cambridge Market, a delightful and historic market in the centre of Cambridge within earshot of King's College Chapel and many other Cambridge specialities. My lovely little stall (ah, the joys of being a market trader - it deserves a blog post all to itself!) has an eclectic mix of rather nice gardening products like unusual trugs, plant labels, containers and gardening paraphernalia plus pretties for the home. There is also a range of vegetable plants, all grown from seed by my own fair hands. I've got an amazing selection of Franchi Seeds of Italy, about 30 different varieties at the last count with more being added to. Now I'm getting established, locals are making a bee-line for the seeds and only yesterday I had an Italian living in Cambridge come to the market specifically to see my stand and buy some Franchi seeds. He told me he'd just planted out that morning 94 tomato plants, 12 different varieties, and was looking for a particular Italian climbing bean and an unusual courgette and squash. With the help of the charming Paolo Arrigo from Franchi to identify the varieties, I have ordered the seeds in for the Italian gardener to pick up next week.

Vintage gardening and a few choice home items is another aspect of my market stall. I have great fun sourcing bygones from auction houses in East Anglia - old terracotta pots, gardening tools, old gardening books (love them!), old baskets and other bits and pieces, including ceramics with a tenuous link to horticulture like a floral patterned plates, or whatever. I've just got some lovely old wooden chitting trays from Norfolk which will not only make a good display prop but should also be tempting to passing trade, gardeners or not.

If the opportunity arises, which it quite often does, I like to have a good chat with customers about gardening and plants and advice is freely dished out. If you happen to be in Cambridge on a Wednesday, pop to the market and say hello!

* Although not participating in RHS shows this year, I am putting in an application for a show garden at Chelsea Flower Show next year. Interesting sponsor/subject matter...

Winter Solstice

2010-11-19T11:53:00.001Z

At this time of the year, my friends mostly ask me what I do now winter is here after all, there are apparently no flowers around and no one wants to work outside in freezing temperatures. 'You must have nothing to do now,' they ask peering into my eyes and waiting for a deep gloomy recession-inspired response. Yes, it may seem a myth that garden designers only come out in spring or summer when the sun is shining (it does in winter), the birds are singing (they do all the year round) and plants are blooming (there are flowers in winter and of course, evergreens). My response is greeted with surprise and delight: I have plenty to do, thank you, and am very busy designing gardens, making gardens and writing about them. 'Oh, that's really good' is the usual stock reply to my explanation of what I actually do in the winter. I have no wish to hibernate in what is a busy time of the year and conditions outside make little or no difference (I always point out to clients that bad weather can cause delays at any time of the year).

The great appeal of implementing and building gardens in autumn and winter is the soil, it's so perfect for planting after being warmed up by the glories of summer allowing roots to put on good strong growth before the realities of severe weather really set in. When I was growing up, planting in autumn was a major part of the gardening year and the start of the season, not the end. Garden centres now are brimming with Christmas decorations, gifts and discounted garden furniture and alas, plants take a back seat to this dazzling array of consumer goodies. If you are planning to re-do areas of your garden, do think about getting this done now and not next spring: the obvious reasons are warm soil, but also some good deals to be had by buying bare root plants from herbaceous to hedging to trees, all far cheaper than container stock. Seek out little nurseries in your area or find those further afield by browsing on the web.

The Great Border in my own garden is now cleared of considerably overgrown shrubs and ready for marking out and liberal application of home grown compost to improve the heavy clay soil further. Some plants have already been bought including the delightful Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Fontane' with its silvery waterfall-like flower heads that last through the winter. Planted in various groups of five, they will eventually make a dense but pretty informal hedge, necessitating only a cut back to ground level in early March. Elsewhere, plants will be moved from other borders or divided to increase stock for the Great Border.

The fields surrounding the garden were, at the end of September, somewhat late in their harvest and the farmer has not yet ploughed them to make way for the next arable crop. This has delighted mass numbers of Greylag geese who enjoy browsing and feeding each evening in the temporarily fallow field. Their arrival at sundown and departure a little after sunrise each day is a joyful experience, a delight for the eyes and ears.

Border lines

2010-10-05T13:31:00.007+01:00

The last few weeks have seen borders flowering their hearts out, vegetable plots yield bounteous crops and cut flower borders present armfuls of late summer goodies. The almost continuous rain has changed brown lawns to green (and coupled with warm days, has also meant they need cutting again every week). My new borders at the back of the garden were progressing reasonably well until too much of the said rain on the clay soil meant clearing and digging work has taken an unscheduled respite.

The two new borders are16m and 13m long, respectively, and will also partly act as living screens whilst also allowing glimpses of the open countryside beyond my neighbour's garden. Tall plants like Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Fontane', Rudbeckia laciniata 'Herbstsonne' and Rudbeckia maxima will mingle with successive decreasing plant heights, Veronicasturm virginicum 'Alba' to Geranium x 'Rozanne' and shrubs to create colour and interest throughout the seasons. Autumn and winter outlines, seed heads, bark colour and leaf colour are important considerations for these borders. Planting will take place this month, once we can get back on the soil. Autumn is simply the best time to plant, ever. Moist soil, warmed by the summer, means roots get off to a good start before the frosts and winter's mantle settle in. I will be transplanting quite a few tall plants from another border nearer the house into the new ones. Although only three years old, this border is now quite riddled with ground elder so it will be a good opportunity to take everything out, treat the rampant weed (although, a friend on Twitter advises that it is pretty good to eat - boil like spinach) and re-plant. Taking out the tall plants means there will also be a good view down to the end of the garden and I feel there will be more sense and feel of space in the garden.

The old farm workers cottage I live in is literally situated in and surrounded by fields amidst gently rolling countryside so I'd like to bring more of the landscape into the garden. Wildlife abounds as the garden is an oasis and a roadside Little Chef for birds, bees and butterflies. Two days ago I watched two pairs of Buzzards chase some crows over the trees at the bottom of the garden, there's a pair of Hobby falcons nesting in the old hedgerow in the field opposite the cottage and dusk brings bats along with Tawny and Barn owls on their hunter-gatherer missions. We also have a good population of Dunnocks in the hedges. Birds of all sizes will enjoy lingering seed heads in the new borders and add extra interest and enjoyment over the winter months.

The harvest has been late here in this corner of Cambridgeshire and the wheat field surrounding the house was only harvested last week, the end of September. An area of land has been set aside as a bonfire pile where old shrubs, prunings and clippings have been piled after their removal from the new borders and elsewhere in the garden. Due to the late harvest and it's proximity to the wheat field, the bonfire heap has been left for longer than usual, until it is safe to light it. This has created an added wildlife bonus as a young Kestrel enjoys perching above the heap looking for lunch each day. The site of the bonfire heap will eventually become a raised wooden platform to enjoy the views, birdwatching and star gazing: rural living means no atmosphere pollution from streetlights and the garden is perfect to enjoy and brush up on stars and planets.

DIY garden design

2010-08-31T11:04:00.005+01:00

August. A time to take a slower pace in life after a rather hectic period doing two RHS shows this year - Chelsea and Hampton Court. A delight to be awarded a Silver and Silver-Gilt medal and, for Hampton Court, the honour of People's Choice Award for Best Show Garden.

My own garden in Cambridgeshire, two thirds of an acre set in heavy gault clay amidst rolling fields, has been well attended in my absence whilst I have been ensconced in London and Surrey during key gardening periods. I took on a gardener, Frank, in April and he has risen to the challenge of helping tame years of well not quite neglect, but probably a time of 'under nourishment' in some areas of the garden.

August has also signified major changes in my life. Apart from my RHS show garden achievements, my personal life has been momentous, too. My son was 21 in June and now has left home (officially!) my daughter was 18 at the end of August and week before this she had achieved the A level results she needed to get into University so in less than four weeks time, I will be faced with an empty nest. In addition, my husband, who suffers from debilitating depression (the last four years have been pretty challenging for both of us) at last seems to have turned a corner thanks to medication and some final ultimations.

It took two hours to remove this old laurel stump

A period of change embraces the chance to mould house, garden and life in general into new horizons. As well as plans inside the house, the garden will also metamorphose into a new plot, shaking off it's well redundant football 'pitch' and the leftover remains of borders implemented by a long gone previous owner. Trees and shrubs have outgrown their needs and there is an overwhelming feeling of wanting to open the garden up. Enough of these garden rooms and enclosed spaces! Its time for the light to flood into the dark corners, to allow the mossy lawn to grow again and have wildflowers. Its time to bring some colour into this delightful space - my garden.

My husband's renewed interest in life extends to the garden and he has been enthusiastic in his work here where, no doubt, the healing properties of gardening are providing great therapy. Together with Frank, old borders of shrubs are gradually dissolving into clear spaces providing a blank canvass for me to plan their replacements. At the weekend, three huge old laurel bushes were removed - it took Frank nearly two hours to take out one stump - and now I can sit in my office and see up to the end of the garden. In my head ideas for new planting are emerging: grasses, colourful tall perennials and my favourite Hydrangea paniculata will make a bold and striking internal 'screen' to our neighbours but not exclude the wonderful views surrounding the garden.

Vegetable disorder

2010-06-23T17:31:00.013+01:00

Chelsea has been and gone, but not forgotten. A brief respite of about day at home ensued when I arrived back home from the show at the end of May before work was finished off for the forthcoming Girlguiding UK Centenary Garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, opens in July. Work has already started on this garden, we are in the second week of construction and the garden is coming along nicely (see the RHS blog link for regular updates on things).

My own garden at home is also coming along nicely and I feel rather sad to be leaving it for two weeks. Flowers are blooming, tight buds of roses are now beginning to open (everything seems to be about 10 days behind last year) and the vegetable garden is growing lots of sumptuous goodies for later in the summer and beyond. I picked my first broad beans yesterday, very good, and I hope those left behind in my absence will enjoy the fattening pods that remain. Maybe it is because of the cold winter, the late frosts, the slow start to the year but my onions are producing lots of flower heads. These look very pretty but the swelling bulbs will not be as good as those that are growing 'normally'.

I have a Salvia var. turkestanica growing in one of the veg beds, it arrived from nowhere last year and I haven't had the heart to remove it to the flower border yet, particularly as it does look rather stunning at the moment. Goes well with the flowering onions.

Maybe my vegetable beds are going to become my new flower borders?

Cowslip carnival

2010-04-30T14:57:00.016+01:00

It's a week today until we are on site at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to start building the Victorian Aviary Garden. All the finer details are frantically being attended to and, thank goodness, the last of the RHS forms winged it's way in the post to them this week! However, paperwork for the Girlguiding UK Centenary Garden is already filling the vacuum left by last of Chelsea's forms. We had the final approval for this garden just before Easter, so it is somewhat manic and frantic at the office in an effort to get the aforementioned last minute details done and dusted for Chelsea, and ensuring all is well underway for the mass of elements for Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

There is a separate website for The Victorian Aviary Garden whilst the Girlguiding UK Centenary website has more information about their garden. I'm also doing another blog on the RHS website, under Hampton Court Show, and it covers both gardens. See the links on the right for these websites.

There is a fantastic display of blossom on trees now and cowslips everywhere are looking particularly blooming. I have a patch in the garden that gets bigger each year and looked particularly lovely the other evening in the long sunlit shadows at the end of the day. I've also been at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire this week, walking round with Ed Tucker the gardener there, and found a lovely display of tulips nestling against some ornamental grasses at Auberge Du lac restaurant . The colour of the Bergenia flowers, also looking stunning, compliment the tulips perfectly.

Light levels

2010-03-23T08:36:00.011Z

I have been like a woman possessed in my garden recently. Having beeen locked away behind closed doors for most of the winter (you try working in a garden on heavy clay when its frozen or sticky), the lovely warm weather and longer days have meant I have been unleashed from my tethers and let loose with a fork in one hand, ad spade in the other and packets of seeds between my teeth. Doing two show gardens this year equals not much time in my own garden, at a critical time, too. We're on site at Chelsea in six weeks, so that's May taken care of, then I have a two weak 'break' in June before Hampton Court Show build starts in Mid-June. So, in the next six weeks I have to get the veg beds prepped and planted (runner beans will have to go out early, must remember to write husband a note re: frost protection), finish preparing borders and splitting perennials, weed my cut flower borders and sow seed for plants (will I be here to pick and enjoy the flowers?) and lay a new wooden terrace area. Yes, I know... but it's nice to dream!

Plans are going well with Chelsea. The blog for this now has it's own website: http://www.victorianaviarygarden.co.uk/

The Girlguiding UK garden is getting finalised: the RHS wanted a few more tweaks which have been done and re-done so we are awaiting the white smoke to flow from Vincent Square for the final 'yes'. However, plants are already growing for the garden as some had to be started last month from seed. The collation of all the various elements of the garden is coming together and need to be finalised in the next few weeks before I disappear off to do the Chelsea garden. No pressure then!

Getting slated

2010-02-22T13:54:00.015Z

Last week saw a flying visit to Cumbria, despite a last minute hitch with the car. Jonathan and I visited Kirkstone who are sponsoring all the slate for the Chelsea show garden and we discussed with Manager Nick Fecitt significant details such as how the egdes of the steps will be finished, what pattern do we want to lay the slate paving sections and thickness of slate. Then it was onto Newby Bridge Hotel on the shores of Lake Windermere to look at an existing wall here that will be dismantled for the terrace wall on the garden. Don't worry, it's going back to Cumbria after the show! The whole show garden will be re-sited at Newby Bridge Hotel and will look stunning there.

We also had a site visit last Friday to the Chelsea Show to see where our garden will be situated. It was an early start from Cambridgeshire and I felt like a sardine on the tube, but I had fun listenting to various people's MP3 players (why do they play their music so loud?) in the packed tube carriage, trying to work out what music was playing. I enjoyed the reggae album the best. Standing looking at our plot in a very empty would-be Chelsea Flower Show ground was interesting: the vast expanse of grass in front of us that would normally be dominated by the Floral Pavilion made the chillingly cold day seem even colder. The ground where our site is rises around 300mm, a slight issue but not a major one and I'm sure Mark will resolve any problems with this.

There are 14 main show gardens at Chelsea this year and I'm the only female designer out of these. Why are men dominating Main Avenue? I think back to when I was growing up and women were still in charge of the garden, the kitchen and fashion but now it seems men are muscling in on our comfort zone areas. Come on girls, where are you?

Bedding down

2010-02-02T14:25:00.016Z

On Sunday, the last day of January, I popped into my local garden centre to buy yet another pair of secateurs. Top of the 'I'm always losing these' list, I usually manage to mislay at least two pairs of secateurs each year; they mysteriously manage to get thrown away with plant debris onto compost heaps or get left in gardens. Now I don't tend to buy expensive ones as it seems a foregone conclusion that they will end up being lost, but I do like a decent pair that are good to hold and work well.

I searched high and low in the garden centre and only found a mere three pairs of secateurs, all the same brand, to choose from. Staff at the centre were busy clearing away the remains of Christmas decorations and lights and I asked if there were any more in a different location in the shop (you know how it is, things are always being moved around). Apparently not. How silly of me to think there would be after all this is a garden centre, not Argos.

What I did see plenty of on display which made me stop in tracks was masses of tiny bedding plants no bigger than the size of a thumb. Let's just back pace here - it's the last day of January and summer bedding plants are on sale. It's almost as bad as seeing Christmas decorations in the shops in August. We'll be growing sunflowers in November next.

Watch the birdie

2010-01-29T11:18:00.024Z

A somewhat cold and freezing morning on Wednesday saw Jonathan Denby, co-designer of The Victorian Aviary Garden, Mark Richardson, landscaper of the same, and me coming face to face with the awesome sight of Waddesdon Aviary in Buckinghamshire. Amazing just doesn't even begin to describe this vision of Baroque-themed splendour! The aviary was built at Waddesdon in the late Victorian times but only renovated six years ago. It's filled with exotic birds, all having stunning colours and interesting calling sounds. If it hadn't had been so cold (there was still the remains of heaps of snow at the side of the drive) I could have stayed there all day to take in the sumptuous aviary and it's surroundings.

But we were there to work. In our Chelsea garden, the centrepiece of the design is a smaller simpler version of the Waddesdon aviary. We inspected and photographed the construction and it's finer details, pondering questions about how to re-create the trelliage work and whether the intricate decorative mouldings might be available from an ironmongers somewhere in the country. Warming up with a steak sandwich in the nearby Five Arrows hotel (very posh, great steak), discussions as to where the Chelsea garden aviary will be built ensued: Cumbria, where Jonathan lives or Suffolk, where Mark is. The jury is still out.

Sleepless nights have kicked in. Worry is not essentially the cause at this stage (it soon will be), it's more just planning things in my head which, coupled with long days, equals too much brain thinking activity! Must stock up on YSL's Touche Eclat as dark circles under the eyes looking darker by the day...

Fleeing the nest

2010-01-23T13:45:00.020Z

My foster charges have flown the nest. I have been looking after a nice selection of plants for a client's garden that I was due to plant up before Christmas after the landscaping was done but ice, snow and heavy frost meant they were going nowhere. The recent thaw has meant trowels can once more be plunged into frost-free, if rather soggy, soil so my charges were dutifully tucked up in their nice new garden on Thursday. I think I've managed to convince the client that I haven't planted a load of dead sticks and plant labels! There was indeed plenty of signs of life emerging from the pots of soil: thick leafy buds waiting to reach up to the light and then unfurl into splendid greenery. A wonderful moment fleetingly made me pause during the planting - my face felt the warm rays of the sun, what delight! I've always associated that cheek-warming event with February and not the cold dark days of January. Maybe spring will come earlier this year?

Preps for the Chelsea garden are gathering a pace. More discussion on stone walls (I feel like I'm becoming quite knowledgeable on the subject) and slate is now likely to be championed rather than a mix of limestone and slate. We need to visit the quarry in Cumbria, look at various walls (I will definitely be an expert by the end of that visit) and sort out one or two other things. That's a couple of weeks away but next week we are meeting at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire to see the magnificent aviary there. This is the centre-piece of our Chelsea garden and the point of inspiration for the whole design. Think opulent, lavish and a bit of kitsch thrown in for good measure. All we have to do now is create our own version of the aviary!

Plans for the Girlguiding UK Centenary garden for Hampton Court are also going well. Details of what we're up to are still top secret, though...

Pebble dash

2010-01-16T15:26:00.027Z

Yesterday was spent in Cumbria, also taking in a wee bit of Yorkshire and Lancashire for good measure. Jonathan and I visited Maggy Howarth, designer and maker of the most beautiful pebble mosaics I have ever seen. She lives in a farmhouse high on the Lancashire moors with views extending to Yorkshire in one direction and other counties in the other. Her enviable location has had it's drawbacks in the prolonged snowy weather as she was completely cut off for several days; snow still covered the steep narrow lanes leading to her house and we had to leave the car at the end of road and walk along a treacherous icy track to reach her door.

All well worth the journey and with a cuppa warming our hands we discussed the Chelsea garden and how the mosaic fitted into the design before having a tour of the workshop, and then onto Maggy's studio to discuss design options. With four creative-minded people in the room, it was an interesting and somewhat lively discussion! How much colour, what pattern, shall we reflect design details of the aviary, birds and what type...? Parakeets were looked up in books (what gorgeous bright colours they are), but in the end we chose another classical bird with a long tail. Can't say more than that at this stage, but all will be revealed soon.

A dash back to Jonathan's place at Yewbarrow House, Grange-over-Sands to meet up with Alan Ward who is doing the sculptor in the aviary. Further interesting discussions here but a bit more work is needed as there seems to be three different opinions on what the options are at the moment!

Good news on the stone for the terrace wall. The pile of stones at Jonathan's hotel is perfect! His team have re-built a stone wall there using stones from a dismantled old wall and the end result is a mix of mossy weathered limestone and slate, all looking looking pretty fab. Jonathan's asking his team to come down to Chelsea to build the wall in the Victorian Aviary Garden.

Stepping up the details

2010-01-14T09:24:00.028Z

I sat drinking my Chamomile tea in the lovely contemporary restaurant at Anglesey Abbey on Monday when Mark Richardson, landscaper for the Chelsea garden, looked me in the eye and said: 'So what was the step height in Victorian times and what style was the over-hang?' A quick chat with Jonathan Denby, Victorian gardens specialist extraordinaire and my co-designer, resulted in an excited phone conversation last night.

We'd already decided on curved steps up the terrace where the aviary will sit in all it's sumptuous splendour: 'Curved steps are Gertrude Jekyll's favourite design for gardens' said Jonathan reading from her book on landscape details she wrote with Christopher Hussey, Garden Ornament. Apparently there's a whole chapter on steps and it begins: 'The decorative value of steps consists primarily in the alternation of horizontal bands of light and shade - shining treads and dark risers. If this is always borne in mind, the right proportion of rise to tread will follow naturally'. It seems we have Mark's question answered.

The terrace on The Victorian Aviary Garden at Chelsea is paved with Cumbrian slate and the raised drystone wall made from limestone. Back to Monday, and Mark wanted to know if we had any 'used' i.e. weathered stones suitable for the wall. Over to Jonathan again who happens to have some dismantled drystone walling available from a garden being re-designed at one of his hotels in Cumbria. It's slate not limestone, but we could have a mixed wall in the Chelsea garden. 'Take some photos and bring some stone samples to the next meeting!' I instruct him.

I was keen to have a flavour of Cumbria in the Chelsea design to reflect the sponsor, South Lakes Hotels, and because I was so charmed by Jonathan's own garden at Yewbarrow House at Grange over Sands when I was last there in early September. The photo above shows a beautiful drystone wall in the Yewbarrow House garden and we're hoping to get the same craftsman who built this to do the terrace wall for the Chelsea garden.

Resolutions

2010-01-12T22:44:00.014Z

I'm being foster-mum at the moment to a nice collection of plants, destined for a client's front garden. I was due to plant up a couple of weeks before Christmas but, soon after the plants were delivered, we had 10 days of heavy snow and frost here in Cambridgeshire. Then it was Christmas, ditto, then New Year, ditto. Snow still blatently lounges around the garden, although I did some green lawn the other day blinking in the midday sun. My hopes are set for planting my charges next week, I shall miss them greatly.

The excitement of doing a Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court Palace Flower Show garden is still keen and biting. The paperwork is flowing, relentlessly, not to mention the research and frantic exchanges of e-mails! Less than four months before we on site at Chelsea, how scary is that? On Thursday it's a five hour drive to Cumbria to see Jonathan and chew through my long list of things to discuss. On Friday we are meeting Maggy Howarth who is designing and producing the mosaic path, she lives just over the border in Yorkshire from Jonathan. Maggy is already putting her mind to the design and I'm really looking forward to seeing her ideas.

Long meeting yesterday with Mark Richardson of Stewart Landscapes, he's building the garden for us. We met at Anglesey Abbey, the half-way point for both of us. Sadly no time to visit the Winter Garden or see snowdrops, maybe next time. Reminds me, I still have to write up the minutes of the meeting!

Hampton Court preps are also progressing well. It's still hush-hush at the moment with the design aspects, hopefully I can reveal all in March.

Tidings of great joy

2009-12-18T11:11:00.008Z

After much gnashing of teeth, wringing of hands and chewing of fingernails, I found out yesterday that Jonathan Denby and I have had our garden accepted for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show! Yippeeeee!!

Thank goodness for the Christmas break to get myself organised in the office and sort out some project planning as now doing two show gardens next year. Hope the influx of grey hairs won't speed up as next year unravels...

As I looked out over my snow-covered garden this morning, it occurred that I really should have dug my dahlias up and salvaged some rather nice species pelargoniums earlier in the month.

Well seasoned

2009-12-16T09:14:00.018Z

Summer's end and autumn's glory seem like a dim, distant memory now. Here we are, a week before Christmas and I feel like a mole blinking in the daylight and wondering where the last few months have gone. It's great to have been busy, but now my office looks like a tornado has visited and deposited piles of paperwork in places where it shouldn't be, makes it a challenge to find information at times! Sadly, I am looking forward to a couple days over the Christmas break to get the office into order for 2010. And tidy the garden (might take more than a couple of days).

Talking about tornadoes, over the last couple of months gardens have been created and planted in equally challenging conditions as hefty autumnal gales battered pots waiting to be planted out, wafted mypex membrane like a Cirque Du Soleil repertoire and left me feeling like a barnacle clinging to the side of a rock (or hillside, in this case). Remind me again what is glamorous about being a garden designer?

Autumn is RHS show garden application time, too, when forms of all shapes and sizes are filled in and changed many times, designs endlessly tweaked, re-tweaked and re-tweaked again, all in the general outpouring of time to get your design noticed by the RHS design panel. I have it on good authority that the panel always find something to pick up and I maverickly enjoy the mental challenge of working out what that 'something' is. At the moment, I'm waiting to hear about a RHS Chelsea Flower Show application, my first garden there, which I have co-designed with Jonathan Denby who has the most fantastic hillside garden, Yewbarrow House, at Grange-Over-Sands in Cumbria. Views to die for, plants to salivate over. He's a bit of an expert in Victorian gardens and there lies the clue to our design submission.

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show beckons next July, too. I was selected as designer by Girlguiding UK for their Centenary garden in August, much to my surprise and delight. It's an incredibly fun project to work on and completely different to anything I've done before. But that's all part, I feel, of the evolution of being a garden designer - to be challenged out of your comfort zone and push out the boundaries of your design thinking. This garden is definitely happening although we await the RHS feedback on the design submission (I think I've worked out what they are not going to like). I can't say anything about the design at this stage, but just don't expect the expected! Think fun and the unexpected.

Done and dusted

2009-07-20T08:54:00.033+01:00

Wow, another RHS Silver-Gilt medal for my Hampton Court show garden! Fantastic news, at least I'm consistent having gained three of the same medals in the last three years exhibiting at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Lots of media attention (great garden for photographers of all abilities), loved by the visitors and Sadolin, the sponsor, very happy at feedback, too.

A planting plan for a square border will soon be available to purchase through my main website, http://www.philippapearson.co.uk/, and the border will show planting for year round interest. The border for the Sadolin show garden had to look at it's best for that period, but did actually contain many plants that would look good through autumn and winter with interest from seedheads and grasses. In response to visitor's enquiries, I thought it would be good to have a plan for people to try at home, showing plants that would add interest throughout all the seasons.

It ain't half hot, mum

2009-07-03T18:19:00.012+01:00

A snatched night back at home, complete with bag of dirty washing in exchange for a bag of clean clothes! This week has been amazing and I'm still not sure how everyone, the plants, and I have survived the intense heat. I've been drinking three litres of water a day, working outside for 12 hours and then not sleeping much back at the hotel. No surprise I feel somewhat shattered, then! All nicely finished off with a two hour traffic jam on the M25 on the way home.

But wow, how everyone has worked hard! Marc and his team from Garden Care have been incredible and have done a fantastic job getting everything painted and finished. Janet, Nick and Siobhan have sweltered under a burning sun planting all the plants - thank you all! It's great to be in the position of having the garden practically finished, just need to set out all the items from John Lewis Kingston on Saturday then tidy up the plants for judging on Monday.

Sneak preview of the garden...

The sun has got his hat on

2009-06-27T18:56:00.008+01:00

The plants at Crocus are looking amazing! Some very last minute additions sorted on Thursday but nothing too horrendous. Had to dash and get some Digitalis purpurea this morning from Cambridge (was lucky to find some in flower and of such good quality) but apart from that, all is on target with the plants.

The weather forecast says it will be 30 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday so after visiting Crocus last week, I popped into a garden centre on the way home and got a straw hat! I think I'm going to need it as this coming week will be outside for 8-10 hours each day planting up with friends Janet, Nick and Siobhan. Stocked up on water, too, and trying not to panic that the heat is going to to make everything go over too quickly. We should be OK as Crocus have made sure plants are in bud with nothing too far into flower.

My own garden at home is looking sadly neglected! I've promised myself a long holiday there after the show in the hope that I can tame what has become a wilderness...

Making a bee-line

2009-06-25T21:36:00.028+01:00

Despite taking nearly three hours to get there (and again back home) on the M25 (someone, please suggest alternative routes!), today has seen a large tranche of project done and dusted. The meadow turf arrived nice and early: 'it's a shame they didn't have time to cut the turf', the cheeky delivery driver said, tongue in cheek. I didn't get chance to see it in situ but Marc e-mailed me photos over later in the day. The trees are all in position. The Betula nigra, American River Birch, has stunning dark peeling bark, soooooo gorgeous.

Next was Paul and mate from Arcangel with the sculpture. Wow, it's mesmerising and so relaxing just watching the steel grass blades naturally sway in the breeze. An amazing feet of engineering, with each blade having a pendant weight to regulate the movement. You can't see these weights on the garden now, they are underground, so a quick piccie below for the techie readers amongst you.

The wild flowers turned up later, looking very relaxed after being stuck in traffic on the M25. Ian Forster has personally selected the plants for me and we even have some poppies!

But the real eye catcher today is the sedum roof. Everyone stops and stares at it. The bees love it, too - it's an all day breakfast for them!

Wild about flowers

2009-06-24T08:13:00.013+01:00

Several e-mails arrrived on Monday morning, all photos of wild flowers from Ian Forster at British Wildflower Plants in Norfolk. To save me a trip and half a day out of my schedule, which seems to have every minute of my day sorted down to the last second, Ian thought it a good idea to discuss the wild flowers by 'remote office' mode. All the plants are looking good here, lots of flowers, although those I took away from them a month ago and potted up at home (around 300 plants), aren't flowering as much as I'd like. Driving around the countryside, the verges have meadow cranesbill blooming with brilliant blue flowers. My potted up ones here have no flowers. These and the other plants went down on site from home yesterday and are placed in a sunny position, awaiting planting up on Sunday.

The building has the roof on now! The site is incredibly hot and dry in this weather, but rain is scheduled for the weekend: just in time for planting up...! At least we can shelter under the building in the downpours.

Lots of Sadolin woodstain going on the fencing and building, too. After a discussion with Vince and Marc, we agreed that two coats of Sadolin Classic would look better on the fencing - that's Daniel's work sorted for the next day then!

The art of grass

2009-06-22T13:02:00.010+01:00

'We spent all day yesterday just watching how grasses move in the wind,' said David Boyall and Paul Currell at Arcangel at Bendish, Hertfordshire, who are making the grass sculpture for the garden. I love these guys and their creativity! They are totally committed to getting the movement of the sculpture right and the grasses, five blades, will sway in different directions and at different speads, all controlled by weights on the bottom of each stainless steel blade. 'This is all experimental and thinking on the job,' says Paul 'and I've making and trying different weights to get the movement just right.'

I have every confidence that the sculpture will look fantastic. We all agreed that it should not be the main focal point of the garden, just blend with what is already there and this Thursday sees David and Paul installing their creation in the garden.

This week also sees the emergence of trees, wildflowers, meadow turf and the sedum roof on the building. Does anyone have a few spare hours I could squeeze into my days? I seem to have run out of allocated time to get things done!

Sleepless In Cambridgeshire

2009-06-19T07:28:00.019+01:00

We started Build-up on Monday 16th June for the Sadolin Nature To Nurture Garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Marc Patrick and the guys from Garden Care Contracting are steaming ahead with the construction. We have three weeks to get the garden created but this relatively simple design has a tight schedule. Which keeps me awake at night. And when I do sleep, I'm not sure if I've been dreaming or just randomly thinking about things when I awake, several times, in the night with thoughts of building construction and plants fresh in mind. It all blurs into one haze of excitement mingled with mild panic...

But it's great to be building this garden, at last. Having lived with this design in my head and on various bits of paper for the last nine months, it's a relief to see the garden emerge from the scenic parkland in the shadow of Henry VII's palace at Hampton Court. Driving down into the show site on Tuesday this week, my first visit, it hardly felt like 12 months since I was last doing this. The usual rush of panic lept up and grabbed me as I stood in front of the garden plot: it's huge, the flower beds are bigger than I thought and have I got enough plants? Crocus are supplying plants again and visiting them later that day, my initial fears about plant numbers were soon put to rest . The warm weather, I thought, might have caused a lot of my planting list to go over but only a mere handful needed swopsies, easily found as Mark from Crocus and I walked around the nursery in the afternoon, clipboards in hand, scibbling alternatives. Must say, all the carefuly nourished plants I've ordered there are looking soooo fab! Well done guys.

Another site visit on Thursday to the show and the building is taking shape. It looks really tall, but still lots of other elements to build into the equation yet! The sedum plants for the roof arrive next Monday, trees on Tuesday whilst wildflowers, sculpture and meadow turf trickle into the remainder of the week.

Spring Greens

2009-04-22T12:25:00.015+01:00

I went away for a long weekend and couldn't believe how much things had grown in the space of five days! Weeds especially, but also the tulip displays. Wow! The sun and warmth are great but makes installing new gardens and borders a bit of nightmare this early in the season. We overhauled a huge border a few weeks ago at a client's and re-planted it with mature trees and perennials: my landscaper looked gravely as he informed me that the soil was very dry a few spade depths below the surface. Client practically propagandised on regular watering of new plants, whatever their size.

Do you remember a couple of years ago when we had another dry April? I'm hoping the ground won't get to that state again, clay soils were like concrete before May. Creating new gardens then was jolly hard work! I'm sure those designers at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show are either worried or delighted at the warmth. Alliums and irises are always en force at the show - and my alliums are just about to burst into flower! I'm back at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show again this July with Sadolin's Nature To Nurture Garden, and I'm already just slightly wondering about my own plants. Crocus are supplying most of the plants again - must remember to talk to them about a Plan B. Plan C is to do last minute plant shopping, of course. I had to reduce my plant list down for the RHS as they sort of suggested I'd complicated it (or rather, they were politely telling me I'd put too many on the original list). So, maybe if this weather lasts for a while the rejects will get a look in if original choices go over.

It's my third year in a row at HCPFS, the previous two winning Silver Gilt each time. I've sort of told myself it's third time lucky for a Gold. No pressure then!

A whiter shade of pale

2009-01-08T11:12:00.021Z

A few weeks before Christmas, I met up with a garden designer friend at Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge to enjoy the Winter Garden. It has been a few years since I was last there, and great to see how the planting has matured whilst new schemes are still being introduced. I've always been a fan of year round planting and I just love the way winter exposes a wealth of interesting stems, leaves and shapes into garden.

I'm designing a long border for a large house at the moment and the theme is very much year round interest whilst also providing screening and a welcome as the border is near the house entrance. My client also recently visited Anglesey Abbey and it was great to see their enthusiasm for lots of trees and shrubs. Most of the time, I feel I'm inflicting my plant choices onto clients - who are always pleased with the plants, I have to say - but it's so useful to have some feedback about what clients would actually like in their own gardens. There's surreal glade of ghostly white-barked Betula utilis var. jacquemontii at Anglesey Abbey's Winter Garden and we've already earmarked this tree for the client's new border.

Evergreen shrubs are key year round players and even the most common ones, such as Viburnum tinus (always found in superstore car parks) can be made even more interesting if you clip them into a formal shape instead of leaving them to get straggly and, to be honest, ugly. Another great Viburnum is the Leatherleaf one, Viburnum rhytidophyllum which has bold textured large evergreen leaves. They looked great at Anglesey Abbey.

Tulip fever

2008-11-25T11:18:00.020Z

A month to Christmas and I still haven't planted my tulips yet! Timing is not really an issue as tulips prefer to be planted in November so they can escape tulip fire blight, a virus that attacks the bulbs and reduces flowering. Mind you, it was a virus all those centuries ago in Holland that produced fascinating flower colours and shapes on tulips and people all over the world decreed them as a 'must have' plant. Tulips were sold for hundreds of pounds, so sought after at this time. Good job prices have come down in these credit crunch times...

A favourite tulip I plant in client's gardens and recommend to others is 'Ballerina': it has striking orange fragrant flowers in a lovely pointed lily-like shape but, I think, more robust than some of the traditional lily flowering types. Great for containers, too and we've used them at Brocket Hall in several areas. To beat the squirrels and other bulb-eating creatures, plant bulbs deep, around 6 ins. Many people prefer to dig up bulbs after flowering each year and re-plant again in autumn, using the same bulbs and/or new stock. By planting bulbs deep you should get a good display over a few years without having to keep on digging them up each year. Another favourite tulip is the species form acuminata which has fabulous wispy pointed petals. Best planted in drifts or in thick clumps in containers.

Daffodils need a longer growing period but you'll still get some flowers, albeit a little late, if you still have bags lying around un-opened. Hopefully, you've kept them somewhere cool otherwise they may well be beyond redemption!

Colour coded

2008-10-15T08:40:00.019+01:00

Last month, I visited a garden in Essex to cover for a feature. Spread over several acres, what impressed me amongst other things was the choice of planting for interest all year round from trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs. At this time of the year, the garden explodes into a firework of colours from the changing leaves, all hot reds and oranges. Some favourite plants of the owner include: Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy', Cornus obovatus and Pittosporum 'Tom Thumb' - all great foliage plants looking particularly stunning now. Green Island Garden near Ardleigh, Essex is open at various times this month and in November. Read the article in November's edition of Essex Life.

Using plants for colour and interest all year round is something I like to incorporate into gardens. It's fantastic driving around now seeing trees changing colour but even nicer having a display in your own garden. Many trees and shrubs suitable for smaller gardens have beautiful bark, leaf shape and colour and even flowers for a succession of 'wow' factor over the seasons. The Cornus or Dogwood family are a must with pretty leaves, often variegated, flowers in summer, gorgeous autumn leaf colour and then brightly coloured red, orange, green or inky black stems throughout the winter; Fothergilla major is a nicely shaped shrub with excellent autumn colour; Betula utlis var. jacquemontii, the Himalayan Birch, has glowing white bark and makes a real focal point in the garden (keep the bark looking bright by washing in spring with a soft sponge and water); Nyssa sinensis has long narrow leaves which are purple-tinged when young, green when mature and turn a brilliant scarlet red in autumn.

Cambridge in bloom

2008-08-26T08:36:00.038+01:00

One of the last gardens I finished in June before being ensconced at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show with the Homebase Show Garden was at Girton in Cambridge. A new build, the three storey town house has a tiny courtyard garden which, on my first visit in April, had the usual basic concrete path skirting round a pile of builder's rubble, cleverly disguised with a dusting of 'topsoil' over it.

'We love our plants,' said the owners, 'and entertain a lot. We've also bought this sculpture for the garden.' Hmm, I thought, staring at the requisite blank piece of paper on my drawing board along with various photos of the garden, there's no point in having a lawn in such a tiny area by the time I've filled the garden with plants. With so many angular lines surrounding the house - from other houses, the chunky fencing and the shape of the garden - it was a definite candidate for some curves and I created two flowing borders cut out of Indian sandstone with a couple of raised beds for height with the added benefit of extra seating. 'I do like my perennials so you'll get quite a few of them, and some grasses,' I said to my clients. 'That's fine,' they said.

I went back to the garden last week to pop in some field-lifted bare-root irises. Three month's earlier, the 'garden' was a sea of pretty awful soil; now it was a billowing feast of colour and interest. I'm really pleased at how the garden has developed and my clients are delighted. The sculpture looks great surrounded by fluffy grasses and brightly-coloured dahlias. Instructions on adding some bulbs - tulips, please - were left with the clients and I look forward to seeing the garden next year when the show will be even better!

When Iris eyes are smiling

2008-08-12T18:20:00.016+01:00

7.57am today: 'There is a severe weather warning for southern England this morning as heavy rain spreads across from the west.' Great, I thought, as I sat in a traffic jam on the A1 heading down to Brocket Hall at Welwyn in Hertfordshire, windscreen wipers doing ten to the dozen. Miraculously, the rain stopped as I finally drove onto the Brocket estate and even a glimpse of blue sky winked at me as I parked my car. Today we'd planned to divide the irises on the main parterre garden outside the Hall. They are stunning a sight in May, but after two years are clumping up thick and fast and need to be divided to ensure the display keeps on for future years, plus I wanted to use some more iris in other areas on the estate. I wasn't long before Ed, Gardening Supervisor, was digging out huge clumps of iris and plonkling them down in front of me to cut up. Weatherwise, the rain kept out of our way for a few hours and we enjoyed the blustery but sunny day. August? 'It feels more like the end of September,' said Ed.

David Howard is looking rather sultry in my garden at home. Well, the dahlia named after him is. He's nudged in to being one of my favourite dahlias along with 'Murdoch' and the Bishop, of course. There's something about the late summer sun that really brings out the colours of these intense dahlias and they just demand to be stopped and stared at. Great places to see dahlia displays until the first frosts get them (hopefully, November) is at Ayletts Nursery at London Colney near St Albans, Hertfordshire and Anglesey Abbey at Lode, Cambridgeshire. Take a notebook and pencil with you to jot down your favourites!

Annual Event

2008-08-08T11:28:00.010+01:00

Yesterday I visited Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire to write a feature on the gardens for the Autumn edition of Buckinghamshire Life. The gardens have been developed over the last 50+ years and surround the magnificent Manor House which dates from Tudor times. They've just finished filming Little Dorrit there for the BBC.

What impressed me in the gardens was the use of annuals to great effect. The layout is of separate garden rooms enclosed by neatly trimmed hedges which give a slightly formal feel but complimented by deep beds filled with frothy annuals like Cosmos, Argyranthemum and Nicotiana. I liked this feathery approach, particularly as the colour scheme was mostly white and pale pink with a few intense splashes of deeper pink here and there. Elsewhere, dahlias are used en masse to create hot and bright in-your-face colour. Personally I prefer to mix my dahlias and not have them in such big clumps, but the effect works very well at Chenies Manor. In spring, 6,000 tulips bloom over three to four weeks, a splendid sight. Chenies Manor is open from early April until the end of October and well worth a visit.

Slugs and Hobbs

2008-08-06T16:06:00.001+01:00

It's slug warfare out there! Oooh, and snails. They all love this warm, wet weather and are in their element hiding under leaves, nooks and crannies. Then they eat anything in their path. Mostly the best plants in the garden. Client's are getting a bit fed up with it all: 'You know those lovely plants you put in earlier in the year, well, the leaves look a funny shape and the flowers have some petals missing.' Gosh, I think, hope you are not expecting a refund on this! Educate client's about slugs and snails suggesting beer traps rather than slug pellets (a bit more environmentally friendly). Keep fingers crossed they keep on top of things.

Yesterday I spent five hours at the Rose Lawn at Brocket Hall working in torrential rain. Even my waterproofs gave up and leaked and as for my boots, trench foot was setting in. Thank goodness I had the sense to put a dry pair of shoes in the car before I left home in the morning! We were cutting back perennials for a second flush of late summer flowers. Also removed rather a lot of snails from the undergrowth. Moments like this make me think I'd rather be in a posh frock from Hobbs rather than muddy, soaking wet clothes, and working in a lovely office somewhere looking very important.

Ah, but to dream....