A garden flowing from The Downs
We trickled a pebbly stream into a formal slate-faced, stepped water feature to connect our client’s garden to the local environment and give plenty of space for growing vegetables and entertaining friends.
We trickled a pebbly stream into a formal slate-faced, stepped water feature to connect our client’s garden to the local environment and give plenty of space for growing vegetables and entertaining friends.
Following on from my earlier blogs on wildlife gardens and ponds you’ll have guessed by now that, allied to my professional interest in gardens and all things horticultural, is a fascination for wildlife and, in particular birds.
Last month we were waxing lyrical about Autumn leaves. But for most of us leaves are great while they are still on the trees, but once they fall, they lose their attraction. They can clog up ponds, kill your lawn, encourage slugs and generally make your garden look a mess. So this month’s top tips are all about leaves and what you can do to make leaves your friends:
“What would you like to get out of your garden?” This is the first question we ask our customers and over the last twenty or so years of designing and creating gardens, the answers have been many and varied. Most, however, tend to include the same overall themes; seating areas, lawns, colourful and interesting planting, space for the kids to play etc. Them come the ‘nice to haves’; water somewhere would be nice, lighting, irrigation (we never have time to water). Almost all say ‘low maintenance’ – no one has ever asked us for a ‘high maintenance’ garden!
Autumn leaves can be very evocative and one of the most dramatic signs of the changing season. But by the time they come, many of the jobs you need to think about to prepare your garden for the cooler months, should already have been started.
To save you having to worry about what you need to be doing in your garden during the Autumn and Winter so that it is ready to burst into life again in the Spring, we’ve put together an Annual Garden Care and Development Programme.
A visit to the beautiful grounds of Howbery Park last week to interview candidates for our new team (more on this later) prompted me to highlight what I feel are the most important features of our landscape – trees. I think they’re brilliant.
Rather than bombard you with lots of jobs to do in the garden during August, we’d much rather you sit back and enjoy it.
While you do, why not capture your garden at its best and share your photos with us and your fellow GreenArt customers and friends?
To give your garden a seasonal boost and help identity areas for on-going development, why not sign up for our annual Garden Care and Development Programme?
For a fixed annual fee you will have a garden review and assessment by George and a full day of our team on site. During the visit we would:
This is what you’ve been waiting for – borders in full bloom and vegetables producing fine crops. Now’s the time to enjoy those long summer evenings relaxing and entertaining friends.
Although there’s plenty of work to be done, you can do it a more leisurely pace than during the hectic months of Spring. Take time to take a closer look – you’ll see some welcome visitors going about their work – like the bumble bees and hover flies – but also pests and disease. Aphids, for example, can be easily dealt with by simply squashing, so long as they haven’t taken over – so catch them early. And don’t forget to look after our feathered friends too – keep your birdbath topped up and enjoy watching them have a splash!
If you want to take stunning photos of your garden during the summer to remind you of it throughout those cold and wet winter months, then it’s worth thinking about the best way to go about it before you start.
Local photographer Shannon Lee Robinson from SLR Photography is working with us to capture some special images of the gardens we’re creating.
