(stone, earth, grass…)
Just an example of our aesthetic nostalgia, taking the country to the city…
the tactile, solid reassurance of stone terracing and banking, constructed for purely practical agricultural reasons, c.1900
…and the tactile, solid reassurance of stone terracing and banking (albeit with selected cut stone, ornamental grasses, and curious white ‘lumps’), constructed purely as lunch surroundings for busy City workers, c.2010
A few words about some exciting projects for 2012:
A large hillside garden overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The main design plan was actually completed during early Spring 2011, but I’ve been to the site regularly since, essentially tying up loose ends of the garden and peripheral works, while trying to work out the logistics of an ambitious build far from home – materials, labour are all very different from my UK experience!
But the potential for the garden is exceptional and I really hope to get construction underway during Spring/Summer 2012
one of the mini-projects around the garden boundaries, a small deck platform overlooking the lake and mountains:
Closer to home, attention is focused on a sunny, sheltered Brighton garden. Basic design plans and model were presented in Summer 2011 but budget necessitates a staged build.
Peripheral work has commenced to screen one flank of the garden space…
before
after
…but ambitions remain to complete timber decking and perspective-stretching planting beds during the course of this year.
As discussed in other narrative entries, ‘shoebox’ spaces (the main garden here measures approx 12mt x 4mt) need not be flat and featureless – clever textural planting and attention to all sides of the garden can create challenging and rewarding spaces.
gardens built, gardens growing…
detail and distraction…
landscapes big and small…
Now the festivities have subsided and we’re left in the relative doldrums of January, what better than to distract ourselves from these cold, bare realities, and consider imaginative possibilities for the warmer months to come. The post-Xmas Winter months are the perfect time to take a good look ( through the double glazing if you must) at what lies beyond and beneath, and assess whether your outdoor space is ‘working’ for you?
Stripped of greenery, swept clean of seedheads and patio pots, this is the ideal canvas for planning. Where do you want to have coffee on a warm Summer’s morning? What would you prefer not to be able to see so clearly from your garden bench? How will you keep those weeds down for another season? Is it finally time to embrace your imagination and create that subterranean, ambient-lit, stargazing hollow?! Remember that hotel / bar / park you visited last year and thought,’ if only I could do something like that at home?’
Perhaps you can. From raised beds to sunken grottos – let Lundscape aid you in your outdoor quest this year. Call or email for a free consultation and we’ll find out where your garden path could lead…
As so often in the landscaping business, a lot of projects originate from contacts and recommendations, and this year a good proportion of my work has been based in the East Grinstead area. This departure from the more local challenges of ‘shoebox’ urban gardens has been exciting and somewhat educational. In Brighton issues like soil type can often be irrelevant, relying on imported topsoil for raised beds etc, and the impact or incursion of the natural ‘flora and fauna’ is usually restricted to brambles, bindweed, cats, squirrels and police sirens. In the more ‘rural’ environs of Turners Hill, Sharpthorne, East Grinstead, I’ve had to address heavy clay, waterlogging, steep banks, webs of everlasting nettles, rabbits and deer… One recent project has been of particular interest. The clients’ large back garden is bordered by marshy woodland to the rear and banks steeply to fields along one flank. The client had previously been frustrated by the mismatch between their lawn edge and the ‘wilderness’ beyond, which was heavily inundated by bramble, nettle, overgrown hazel and other saplings. Our challenge was to try to blend the ‘domestic’ garden with the surrounding native landscape around.
The space naturally divided into three ‘micro’ environments:
(a) a dry, sunny, steep bank sweeping down and along the lawn, broadly themed and termed as ‘meadow.
(b) a semi-shaded woodland slope of hazel, alder, and birch stretching beyond the rear fence into the woods
(c) a strip of marshy land at the foot of the slope winding up at a rather stinky overgrown pond
Clearance work occurred periodically and intensively from November to February in an attempt to prepare the site whilst dormant and ‘see the wood for the trees’.
No design was required for the existing space, but a comprehensive planting plan was drawn up, and work began shortly before Easter 2011.
Plant selection was an interesting project – looking to use 90% native UK plants, to replace the brambles and nettles with more ‘aesthetically pleasing’ wild varieties. Thus the plant list included teasels, geraniums, contorted hazels, dogwoods, lily of the valley, broad buckler ferns, snowy woodrushes, aquilegia, achillea, quaking grass, blue oat grass etc. A holly hedge helped secure the fence line at the top of the slope, and we recently planted a native hawthorn screen along the rear fence, also containing field maple, wild cherry, beech, and wild rose. A timber jetty was constructed to cantilever out over the pond. 
A selection of more popular ‘garden’ shrubs
e.g Viburnum plicata, Viburnum tinus, Osmanthus x burkwoodii, Euonymus europaeus (Spindleberry), Hydrangea arborescens, Rubus Silver Fern were used to give structure and gradually blend into the lawn fringes.
It was also a real pleasure to plant four silver birches (Betula pendula) supplied at a substantial 3-4metres tall. In contrast to more typical garden design ‘transformations’, this is not a garden to photograph, especially in the first settling in period. Too many other plants, trees, ground cover to identify any individual distinctions of texture or colour – but perhaps in a year or two given careful management. This is definitely a garden one must ‘experience’ to appreciate.
The unseasonably hot April weather at the time of planting, lack of consequent rain, unwelcome attention from hungry rabbits and deer, and the inevitable resurgence of bramble, bindweed and nettle makes this a real challenge – to establish the new native plant population until strong enough to compete and finally triumph over the less desirable species!
Apologies for the lack of recent updates to the website – current projects have monopolised our time and the cliche holds true that there just aren’t enough hours in each day…!
But setting aside a little time here’s a few photos of the Sharpthorne (W.Sussex) garden completed in the frosts of last November. Six months on and with a couple of days of pruning, tidying, mulching and painting, the garden is settling in very well, in fact better than expected given the harsh Winter that welcomed the new planting.
High Summer into Autumn will provide the best moments for the flowering perennials and swirling grasses, but it’s been a pleasure already to see the succession of colourful and textural interest. In one border Bergenia eroica’s pink and creamy flower-spires, atop leathery purple leaves, have ushered in the lime-yellow clumps and airy seed-heads of Millium effusum ‘Aureum’ (Bowles’ Golden Grass). Further along the garden the striking powder blue of Helictotrichon sempervirens (Blue Oat Grass) is fringed by the feathery white panicles of Luzula nivea (Snowy Woodrush), reflecting the paint scheme for the shed to the rear. Asters, sanguisorbas, and salvias will punctuate the summer months, and Japanese anemones, miscanthus plumes, achillea heads fade through the season’s end, before the vivid scarlet and lime of dogwood stems add light to the winter gloom.
A little maintenance during the first year or two of a newly established garden like this, goes a long way!
After my last project I had a few gabion cages left over with some kinks and bends…
using the worst side as a base and filling with various lightweight packing materials inside, plus weed membrane and a layer of topsoil,
I’ve created turf cubes…
rather the reverse of sitting on a lawn in a chair…
it will be interesting to see how they grow next Spring and when to give them a haircut!
on a more frivolous note, heaved this disc out of the water barrel last week, and experimented with camera and a light bulb…
slightly reminiscent of lunaria seedpods, as well as obvious associations with the Moon, and frosted glass shower screens…
…and could you ever source a more perfect template for crazy paving drawing?
Lundscape’s major project of the Summer…
after battling with a wet September and a frosty November this rear garden is all but complete.
Planted in October the garden will begin to come into its own next year, but the results of major re-sculpting and creative design can be clearly seen.
Rustic chestnut stakes frame log filled cages 'naturalised' with ferns around the crescent-shaped deck and customised shed.
The rusty hues of reclaimed flagstones bordered by a curved wall of gabion cages stacked with oak and chestnut.
A compacted gravel path winds up through the garden's green contours and sandstone terraces. Oak sleepers and box ball plants introduce a touch of sundial formality to the soft sweeping slopes.
Further attempts to photograph the garden have been thwarted by the Siberian weather, but we hope to return one day soon to get some shots of the LED lighting scattered throughout the ornamental grasses and silhouetting specimen trees. Check the gallery for future updates!
Just a few pictures from a garden in Hove built during October 2009. One year on, after a visit to prune, tidy and clean, the patio garden is looking remarkably well for November 2010.
Hard surfaces have softened over a year’s weathering and the contrast between cobble, paving and timber is more subtle allowing the overall shape and curviness of the space to dominate.
I’m eager to revisit again in Spring and Summer 2011 to see the garden in full flower – the soft palette of grey/green/white is effective all year round, but in the Summer months the blooms of purple and blue will add vitality and action to the plant borders.
A garden like this was a pleasure to construct – from an empty grass square to a welcoming outdoor room – that benefits from only needing a couple of visits each year to keep in order and shape.
