As you know, I have spent much of the last 2 weeks planting up the garden near woking.  Although this hot spell isn’t the best thing to have straight after planting, we did manage to get the garden mulched whilst the soil was still cool and damp so it should be ok.  Of course, it’s going to take some time for the planting to fill out and feel like a proper garden, but it’s amazing what even the smallest specimens do to soften the hard landscaping.

The side access is the area that looks best at the moment because of the 3 mature apple trees along the boundary – they just give much more 3-dimension to the space.  And the back garden has changed just a little bit too…

This is how it looked when I first met my clients back in early April, quite different I think you’ll agree…

One of my favourite elements in the new garden is the archway that forms the entranceway between the front and back gardens…

Obviously it needs to time to weather in but also eventually it will be covered with climbing roses and clematis.  It dominates the space at the moment because the plants are so small, but give it a couple of years and it will look and feel quite different.

The front garden also went through quite a transformation, but I haven’t yet been able to take pictures because the skip on the driveway was rather a blot on the landscape!  Next time I visit the site I’ll be sure to take some pictures to show you.

It’s been almost 2 months since I last visited Loseley Park so the changes to the garden were really quite dramatic when I popped in there yesterday.  Many of the perennials were just coming to the end of flowering but amazingly, just a day before the garden is closing to the public, there was still something to take photographs of.  Read more

As you know, I’ve just spent the last 6 days planting up the project near Woking.  It’s all coming together now and I’ll be meeting with the client and landscaper later this week to sign everything off.  When I was designing the garden, one of the considerations was an area near the garden shed as it could been seen from the lounge window and was really unattractive… Read more

I have recently returned from 2 wonderful weeks on the Island of Kefallinia in Greece.  We stayed in a villa in the mountains overlooking the sea and although I feel now that it’s almost becoming a distant memory, I wanted to share with you the pictures I took of some local gardens.  Despite the dry hot weather that generally presents itself from May to end September, some islanders really made an effort. Read more

Yesterday was day 1 of the planting phase for the project near Woking.  The first load of plants arrived and the second load are due to be delivered today.  The first stage is to set all the plants out in line with the planting design and then we can start getting the plants in the ground. Read more

I have recently been working with a client in West Sussex who had their garden designed and built some 20 years ago.  It’s an amazing location, tucked away in the country and the garden is fully mature now and really quite wonderful.   So why, I ask you say, have I been asked to come in and have a look? Read more

If you’ve been reading my recent blog series about designing your own garden hopefully by now you’ll be feeling much better equipped to take the brief, survey and analyse your site and start work on a concept design.  Once you have a sketchy conceptual idea and the design of your new garden is really starting to take shape, it’s time to start thinking about the details. Read more

This month saw the launch of a new industry magazine called Pro Landscaper and I am very excited to tell you that one of my projects is featured in the very first copy! Read more

So, you’ve carried out and drawn up the survey of your garden and analysed the site.  You’ve also made a note of your own brief – what you want to include, how you want to feel when you step out into the garden and you’ve got a good idea about your personal style and how this will be applied to the garden. Read more

Hopefully you saw my post last week about taking the brief and you’re now ready to get started with the design.  Before you can put pencil to paper you need to spend some time looking at the site so that you know its possibilities and constraints. Read more