Replanting after a cruel winter
Terrace border refresh
Because the gardens are used for teaching, holding private classes and events, plus the odd photo shoot, I want them to be beautiful aswell as useful. My Garden Design training is useful too. I like to create vistas, paths that take your hand and lead you around the space without you realising. Most importantly there must be a place to sit. For eating, chatting and staring.
The terrace was one of the first things that went into the Braybrooke Garden. I knew it would be a lovely space to sit in. I look across it every day from inside the studio, through the huge picture window. I wanted it to feel nestled in amongst planting.
The levels were all over the place and it was easier to first build the soil up to lay the paving slabs but this was complelely the wrong feel. I knew I wanted to step into the space rather than up onto a platform or a stage. It needed to feel cosy and held in, not up high above the rest of the garden.
The terrace lies lower than the paving in the studio. There is a ramped platform up to the level of the studio. Once in the studio, one’s view is directed across the terrace. Planning horizontals across a long narrow space, like hurdles, enable the visitor to realise the length of it. Look about the space, rather than straight to the furthest point. The planting around the terrace together with the planting beds themselves help this narrow space feel larger by ones eye being drawn all around it.
The other reason for good planting design around the terrace and the subsequent long border beyond it, is that many of my clients don’t start with a large space that they can give over entirely to productive growing, that is for vegetables, fruit and flowers. They have borders of perennials, shrubs & bulbs. You’ll know that I think this is the original, and most effective way of growing cut flowers in your garden but many won’t cut from their beds. I like to grow plants in this way, not only does it create a beautiful garden, but visitors can see that I am cutting every week from these spaces, yet you couldn’t always tell from looking at it.