Blue Daisy Blog

A garden is not just for summer it’s for 12 months of the year!

Some people often think that as soon as the leaves fall and the dark nights come everything stops in the garden.  Well, they couldn’t be more wrong – while, for most of the year your garden is an entertaining space,  a playground for children or a showcase for your favourite plants – it’s also there for 12 months of the year and since I’m sure you’ll be able to see it from more than one window of your home, it's also a winter vista, so why not make the most of it?

Personal style
We all have a preferred way we like our home and gardens to look and that identity is very personal, it isn’t right or wrong, it is our choice.  Some people like to have their garden pristine with lawn edges sharp, any sign of dead or decaying plants quickly removed;perennials that are beginning to die down and over winter underground are swiftly cut back.  This results in a very neat and tidy garden for winter which more often than not just leaves the evergreen plants or shrubs and any deciduous trees or shrubs as the only structure in the garden.

The clients' current garden had been inherited and they felt it didn't flow well, needed updating and the initial brief for the style of this garden was low maintenance with a contemporary twist, it would be used for impromptu morning coffees, reading the weekend papers, socialising with small gatherings of friends and family or maybe having a barbeque in the summer. Hard landscaping materials the clients preferred were brick, gravel, natural timber, sleepers and slate. A bin storage area and shed at the bottom of the garden along with a small lawn and a Brabantia foldable washing line was a must. The project as always came with some problem areas - the garden sloped down from the house and the level of the garden was higher than a neighbours meaning that the land needed retaining to keep within the garden boundary it currently had a small wall that acted as a retainer but also seemed, wrongly to be a focal point too!

A ha-ha looks like a ditch that has a vertical brick retaining wall on one side which is unseen from the main house and gardens, the ditch is usually turf and slopes back up to ground level.  The ha-ha is situated at the edge of the garden or pleasure grounds that surround the main house, the main purpose is to provide uninterrupted views of the estate or parklands and distant coutryside views.

Visually from the house or pleasure grounds there are seamless views however it also stops livestock such as cows, deer or sheep from entering and destroying the gardens yet allows them close enough to graze and been seen.

Last weekend I visited Charlecote Park a National Trust property in Warwickshire.  The estate is said to have been in the ‘Lucy’ family since the 13th Century but the house was completed in 1558.  The house itself has been ‘dressed’ as it would have been in the Victorian times and there really is a lot to see and experience.   When we first went into the house there was a talk that had begun about clothes ladies wore in that era and even how items became fashionable back in Tudor times when Elizabeth I reigned.  All the rooms were amazing from the attention to detail in carvings to the opulence of the lifestyle, you could really imagine what life for the aristocracy was like back then.  It was just like walking onto the set of a historical drama!

The library was just stunning it is said to be one of the top three libraries cared for by the National Trust – I just wanted to get a horticultural book out and sit, read and be lost in time!  There were staff or volunteers on hand in most rooms answering questions and telling quirky tales to bring it alive.

The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG) has had some amazing news - their invite to HRH Prince Charles to become their Patron has been accepted.

I'm sure this will be a great partnership given his interest in organic gardening, his passion for growing whether it is edible or decorative! It will also help raise the profile of this society, add more credibility to 'Growing your Own' and will reach newer audiences whether it is hands on growers or political decision makers!

As soon as we hear more from the NSALG we will up date you, but for now our warm congratulations are sent to them!