A city garden design Before and After - from lawn to garden
How a simple design became a paradise of plants. Plus: Magnolia Watch, spring tulips and a new magazine column.
This week, the garden suddenly woke up with a PING. Tulips are appearing, and amazingly, the magnolias are hanging on despite the gales. I’ll be showing you one of my favourite garden transformations: a simple rectangle that became something completely magical.
It definitely feels like colour is heading back to our gardens - a massive HURRAH for that. After months of browns and greys, those first reds, apricots and purples are really something else and I’m obsessed with trying to capture their fruity shades. More please.
Well, just as Magnolia Watch got into full swing over on Notes, of course the gales decided to arrive. I’ve had a look round and most of these resilient beauties have, however, managed to hang on to their petals.
Did you decide to include a magnolia, from the suggestions here, in your garden?
I have a new magazine column which I’m super-excited to tell you about - more below!
We’ve got a very special garden design Before and After case study
The Garden Design Studio is now full (which I’m thrilled about) and there’s now a waiting list.
If you’d like to be added, just drop me an email and I’ll let you know if a space becomes available. We begin on Tuesday 14th April at 6pm UK time.
I’ve also decided to add something new to this course: each participant will have a one-to-one online session with me, scheduled at a time that suits you, to talk through your own garden ideas. Do keep an eye on your inbox for further details in the next two weeks.
If you’re looking for small garden ideas, you can find some here, and if you have a garden design conundrum, do have a look at the Garden Design Challenges series:
There are plenty more - do have a browse through the archive.
If you’re landing here in The Gardening Mind for the first time, WELCOME - I’m absolutely delighted you’ve found us. There’s lots going on here - garden design ideas, easy gardening how-tos, plant recommendations, general garden chat, border planting design tips and tricks and lots more. If you’d like to join in, I’d love it:
Also, do remember to head over to the Chat on Sundays - Show Us Your Plots goes bananas there each week. Last time we had photos from members in Australia, Germany, US, UK, France - we have members in 176 countries - imagine that?!
If you’re a reader of the magazine Country Living, you might have spotted a new column called The Gentle Gardener - it’s me! Yes, each month, there’ll be an update from my garden - April’s edition is out now.
And they’ve made a lovely cartoon - this is possibly the most exciting thing ….
A Garden Design Before and After
I do love what I do, and each garden brings its own magical moments. Designing a garden for someone who DEEPLY loves plants is particularly exciting, so here’s the story oof one very special garden. I’m going to take you on a journey through the garden design, showing you how an empty space was transformed into a flower-lover’s paradise. I’ll be showing you the drawing of the garden design, along with the initial sketches, so that you can see how the design developed.
This flower-filled, maxi-textured, multi-coloured, happiness-bringing garden belonging to the hairstylist Sam McKnight never fails to put a pep in one’s step. Zigzagging along the garden, you also zig-zag back in time: the simplest of winter structure shows bare bones and curving ways which suggest both a journey and a hint of things to come. The energy and hope naturally twined with the beginning of May are prefaced by thousands of tulips, an education in the possibilities of colour taught to me over the years by a dear friend. Roses, whose gentle tones feel quiet in contrast to the preceding tulips, are followed by an extravaganza of colour from a dahlia explosion, surprising and at the same time completely fitting, the last high peak of colour in the growing season.
The Before:
The garden started off as one of those green rectangles which you’ll probably be quite familiar with. Here’s what greeted me when I first visited - as you can see, at first glance, there didn’t seem to be much to work with: