Woodland hideaway

Tucked into the trees, just off the main path, this old workman’s hut at Attingham Park entices you to peer inside and glimpse a world far removed from the lives of most of us today: a time of slow seasons passing, of simple tasks repeated throughout a lifetime of work, of hardship and privation but also of certainty and order.

Garden makers unimpressed by the lure of the latest gadget, the brightly lit patio, the hot tub or the plant breeders latest triumph still share something of that experience – the quiet performing of seasonal tasks using old and much-loved tools, the moments alone in the garden to savour the stillness of a winter evening or the fragrance of an early summer morning, the gathering of produce for the kitchen and the occasional ritual of turning the compost heap.  These are the experiences I have in my mind when I am designing gardens; this is the heritage I want my gardens to reflect.

Town of trees and gardens

The major design project (part of the MA I am undertaking at Birmingham City University) is beginning to take shape.  It is set in Kidderminster, a town with a range of problems familiar to many of us.  Kidderminster has a wonderful setting along the valley of the River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.  However, an industrial past and post-industrial present have left the town centre disconnected from its landscape setting and dominated by supermarket buildings and car parks.

This extract from a beautifully crafted map of 1753 shows a very different Kidderminster: a town where trees and gardens abound and every detail evokes a green and cultivated place.  The challenge of the major design project is to find a 21st century approach to restore Kidderminster’s relationship with the landscape.

Board-walk to the island – salt marsh (3)

In the foreground are the grasses and flowering plants of the high salt marsh, flooded twice a day by the Cape Cod tides.  Beyond lies the upland forest of Wing’s Island, where cedar, pitch pine and oaks have colonised what was a meadow just 100 years ago.

The narrow board-walk, running straight across the marsh, is an irresistible invitation to set out on a journey across this sun-baked wetland, alive with the sound of insects and birds.  The timber path entices the visitor through the bright, open marshland to the mysterious darker green trees beyond, reassuringly man-made yet in harmony with its setting.

Coastal inspiration – salt marsh (2)

I spent some time studying estuarine salt marshes as part of the inspiration for a university project last year, so it was amazing to have the chance to visit these marshes along the north coast of Cape Cod this summer.  On a calm late summer day, this is a landscape of great visual subtlety which offers inspiration to the designer in search of simplicity, beauty and harmony in landscape planting.

These dynamic ecosystems are under threat around the world, and only recently are we rediscovering how important they are not only for plants and animals but for the people who inhabit coastal regions too.

An evening sky – salt marsh (1)

Early evening on the north coast of Cape Cod in New England.  Sea and sky changed as I watched, inky blue blurring into soft grey.  At high tide only the tips of reeds and grasses suggest the fringe of salt marsh along this coast – horizontal lines running out into the bay beneath the towering clouds, faintly touched with rose from the setting sun.  A serene landscape, full of hidden drama.

Willow and lichen

I have been admiring this willow tree overhanging a local river for months.  I love the contrast between the slender silvery-grey leaves and the yellowy-gold, crusted branches.  I would not normally put golden and silver-leaved plants together in a border, but studying this tree has made me wonder if it could be quite interesting to try.

Stone roses

As a designer, I often have to deal with the challenge of a dominating blank wall within a garden.  This might be a boundary wall, a garage or even a wall of the house with no windows or doors.  Climbing plants are an obvious solution, but I am cautious about putting vigorous climbers into gardens when many clients do not have the time or physical ability to manage the pruning and training.

A successful alternative might be a wall plaque like this huge sculpture at David Austin Roses.   Smaller climbing plants can be grown around it, and the painting or sculpture can be commissioned or even made by the garden owners themselves, making it a very special garden element.

Step by step

Three of the gardens I am designing at the moment are on sloping sites, and steps are needed to manage the change of levels safely and attractively.  In the country garden, I will link different areas with wide, shallow steps – giving lots of space for people to sit during parties and room for huge pots of cottage flowers.   The two town gardens are much smaller and steeper – they will need longer,  narrower  flights of steps, with careful attention to detail as they will be a major feature of  the gardens.

The three sets of steps shown were photographed at Preen Manor, a large country garden in Shropshire.  They remind me to be imaginative in my selection of materials and flexible in my approach to the challenge of designing steps.

Meadow days (4) – A trio of clovers

These little sprays of clover come from the grassy path near my home, on the edge of a traditionally managed meadow.  The colours vary from deep carmine pink, through pale tea rose to a gentle greenish white.  They would make a good starting point for designing a planting colour scheme.  The clovers are faintly scented and the flowers look spiky but are soft to the touch.

The rose of the world

 This beautiful striped rose, known in England since before 1600, has long been associated with Fair Rosamund, the beautiful but unfortunate mistress of Henry II.   Rosamund was born in the Welsh marches in the mid twelfth century, to Walter de Clifford of Clifford Castle in Herefordshire, not far from my Shropshire home.  Fact and legend are mingled in the tales told about her.

There are stories that Henry ordered her tomb at Godstow to be decorated with this rose after her death in 1176.  Centuries later, a legend grew up that Henry concealed Rosamund in a maze at Woodstock, where his formidable wife Eleanor of Aquitaine found and poisoned her.  Eight hundred years later her story still echoes poignantly, adding to the fascination of this lovely rose, Rosa Mundi.