Garden examples

We (I) need to start the garden mood board. That means collecting some examples of garden pictures I like. Fun. 

I started looking online, but what search do you type into Google for something like that? I think I might have gone the long way round. I typed "Garden Design" into Flipboard on my iPad to search Flickr and copied the link into Gmail. There must be an easier way. Any suggestions? 

Here is (some of) what I came up with:

Nice innit? I like the rockery thing on the left, the different colours and shapes. This garden is also kind of voluptuous - curvy, voluminous, and... You know, I have the same problem with describing wine, only I always used to blame the amount of wine I'd drunk. Now I know I just have a problem describing stuff.

The garden above looks more natural. The rocks are more prominent and I like that brave expression. The shot of red and the watery effect of the gravel is a really cool way to draw attention.

I think we are beginning to build a picture now. Rocky slopes, with curvy borders... (Hey! That's what they mean by curvaceous borders! Er... No? That's herbaceous borders, right?) and what a gorgeous tree! What is it?

Look at the amazing colours on this garden! I think I am so paranoid about blocks of dark green overwhelming me in my garden that I'll do almost anything. I wonder what this one will look like in the summer. In autumn it looks magnificent. I make not comment or judgement on the cleavage, or it could be an upside down owl's face, with the benches as eyebrows. I need to see a shrink.

Whose idea is it anzwaz_

"Garden Angel? That makes it sound like... like... I'm going to vacuum your lawn. I am not going to do that!"

Mmm. I put mz foot in it. Not sure she liked that. She was very diplomatic though. She went easy on me with the plant latin names. Although there was still some opportunity for my eyes to do some glazing over.  

The other thing I forgot to mention was my wonderful wife. "Just let me know when its done ok?" I know she has many other things to think about, and she probably wants me to 'feel ownership" but somehow I now feel a huge weight of responsibility. The Garden Angel says its (almost) all possible and the love of my life sazs its all up to me. I haven't got anyone else to blame. Eeks. Aaah... but there's alwazs the dog >/( (darn foreign kezboard}

My dog being sacrificial.

Ambition

Is it too early to start thinking about awards and prizes?

How does one's garden get noticed by judges anyway? And what does it get judged on? I might love it because it does everything I want it to. And who decides what is aesthetic anyway?

Weird. It feels like I have become defensive and have already lost a competition.   

Finding help

Oh where to start? I cannot do it alone. I need someone who knows about this stuff. My friend Craig has a great garden, and I could ask him what to do, but he would rightly think I was a pain in the neck. He has his own garden to attend to. He would probably be suspicious too. Neil has been great labouring during his working hours, oops I mean spare time, but I can-t get him to do everything.

I have been listening to someone on the local radio, who certainly knows her gardening stuff. She talks like she has swallowed the Chelsea Flower Show encyclopaedia. Latin words sprinkled like rose petal confetti all over a village church green. Is that the right simile? If only she could help me find someone. So I sent her an email.

Turns out, she not only knows her alliums from her valliums, but she also does garden design and project management. But she would probably be too expensive right? Not so. Let us just say that for my last garden project, which we decided to do alone, for a garden 5 meters by 9 meters we were quoted 6,500 euros just for a design by someone else. This time we were looking at a tiny, tiny fraction of that cost for a more comprehensive service and a much bigger garden. Much less! For now, let us just call her my garden angel. You will see why.

   

When I told her everything I told you in my earlier blog she said "Ok. We can do that." Wow!

Not only is she going to design what I want with plants I like and guide me through what will work in this area, she is going to project manage the whole darn thing. She is going to find conytractors (typo, but I like that word), find the plants and basically make my wish come true: can't say fairer than that! She will probably be a harder task master than I could ever be. Or anyone else I know for that matter.

A beautiful start to a beautiful project. Maybe I can be famous by association?

The future

What do I want? Well, a bit of this and a bit of that. A bit of everything. A tour of the world, with some childhood memories thrown in. A place to entertain and relax. An escape from work and a safe play area for my dog. A welcoming story with a few surprises. A bright, sunny, colourful scene with shady nooks and hidden treasures.

You see? I do recognise that this is a challenge. Of course, I want it to be sustainable too. So we need some help. I could pick up a spade, dig up everything and plant new stuff from the local nursery all on my own. But there is one major problem. I do not know anything about gardens. Ok. There are other problems too. I do not know anything about plants, or soils or the things I do not even know I do not know about... hmmm, known knowns, known unknowns and other hidden disasters. A title for a book?

I would like to have a mediteranean area of the garden. My parents garden in London had three fig trees the height of the house, a 40 zear old olive tree that produced buckets of olives, a pomegranet tree (bush), lemon geraniums and a pergola covered in grape producing vines. I repeat - In London! All on a patch of land 3  strides (male of 5 feet 10 inches tall) by 6 strides. When I said I would like something like that my wife went white as a sheet. It took me while to realise her first thoughts where the fridge being used as a tool box, the rusty piping and the corregated plastic when I said I wanted a garden like my mum's and dad's.

I make no apologies for wanting a suburban english style to the garden too. It brings back memories of summer holiday parties at friends houses. But a little elaboration. I hate those boxy bland bushes that do nothing. I want a useful garden. Plants that do things. English hedgrows with berries and things that attract birds and that I can eat. The berries, not the birds... well maybe...

Ahhh... and an alpine touch. I do not mean pine trees only. Maybe a rockery with alpine plants. 

Turns out that a Japanese part to the garden could be good too.

And a spot for growing things to eat. Runner beans especially. Maybe some asparagus. Definitely herbs, perhaps some fruit trees. Not potatoes. Why bother? Any suggestions for anything else? I know zour thinking that sounds like your missing a kitchen sink, but the misses would never agree to that. 

Of course I will need a shed and a green house and a lawn too.

One last important area (apart from a terrace where we can have cocktail parties, and one day, hopefully, in 2012, space for a legendary BBQ competition) an area for a little friend of mine, aged 9, where she can feel and smell the garden... a sensory experience beyond sight.

Imagine walking around the garden from zone to zone. That would be great!

Oh, and a dappled shady bit where I can sit in hot weather and drink cocktails.

Please santa?

The garden today

I switched the blogging tool just now.

I was using Blogpress on the iPad but it just kept quitting. I'd write 300 words of sheer genius and it would spit it out into the vapour in disgust, never to be seen again. You know how you can never repeat something as well second time around? I wonder if that is a metaphor for garden design? Anyway, this time I'm using Blogsy. Cute eh?

According to legend, the garden is about 1,400 square meters. That is about one third of an acre apparently, or, if you need a proper frame of reference, a quarter of the size of the pitch at Upton Park, or for those of you on the other side of the pond, 20% of a block in an eastern US city (according to Onlineconversion.com). That's probably about three small diners next to each other.

Project launch

I am going to change my garden. And you can help me do it.

And I'm going to blog it while I do it. Anyone planning to do the same (change their garden that is) can learn from my mistakes before doing their own. But I want to bring you along with me. That way you can help. Let me know what you think at every stage. Thinking of a dream garden, planning what it should look like, what to plant where and how to look after it. Or you can just watch. I'm going to write about it anyway for my own pleasure.

Next post will be about the garden.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad