As so many front gardens are being converted into driveways nowadays, there are lots of garden gates to be found on the second hand market. Some of the cast iron gates are going rusty and they do need restoration. The beautiful Victorian style gate above originated from Clapham and was found on Gumtree www.gumtree.com going for …
Re-claimed granite setts driveway
This front garden in Chipstead has been redesigned to make the steps safer and easier to manage, and also the driveway is being extended to accommodate more cars. The original stone of the steps has been re-laid, vintage re-claimed bricks sourced, and to carry on with the theme, re-claimed granite setts are being laid for …
Screening trees required!
Screening is an issue that comes up time and again, and here is an example where it was desperately needed to break up the view of next door’s flats. Not least to give the people in the flats some privacy too. 3 x multi-stemmed Prunus serrula (the Tibetan cherry) were chosen. Given time, they should …
Prunus ‘Shirofugen’
Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ looking lovely at the moment, underplanted with wild garlic (Allium ursinum). ‘Shirofugen’ has tasteful pale pink double flowers which droop languidly, and are accompanied by the emerging bronze foliage. This tree is growing in a front garden in South Croydon, on thin chalky soil. It was planted 9 years ago, and as you …
Millboard decking and porcelain
In February I attended a talk on Millboard decking www.millboard.co.uk at my Surrey Garden Design group www.sgdg.org.uk Here’s my resume: In February Russell Porter from Millboard Decking came along to introduce us to his company’s decking and porcelain products. It is a family owned British company, and their composite decking in particular is becoming quite …
Cloudpruning
I spotted this ‘Cloud Pruned’ Viburnum tinus in a front garden in Barnes yesterday. What a great idea to prune it in this way, the original bush must have looked quite untidy. It is now an elegant feature. The gardener of the house was there, and he told me that it had a taken a …
Visit to Silverland Stone
I am looking forward to visiting Silverland Stone, landscape suppliers, www.silverlandstone.co.uk in a couple of weeks. I am going as a member of the Surrey Garden design Group www.sgdg.org.uk. I joined last year and it has been a great way to top up my knowledge and meet and make friends with fellow designers/gardeners. We meet …
Horsham Stone front garden
This front garden in Caterham was designed to comfortably accommodate an extra car space. Like so many areas, pressure on parking is increasing. The brief was to make the garden look good when no cars are on the drive, as nobody really wants their front garden to look like a car park. This is the …
Cool Contemporary garden chairs
I absolutely love these bright orange lounging chairs, made of hard-wearing rattan, but can I find them to buy? They are/were available in the U.S , but apparently not here – shame. I find the range of outdoors table and chairs available here rather limited. Anyone looking to set up a business, here’s a gap …
Yellow roses
I am really enjoying these yellow roses in my own garden this year (unknown variety). Yellow is sometimes an unpopular colour in gardening, perhaps due to some brash yellows found in the plant world, like Lysimachia, and Forsythia, but this yellow is so fresh and clear, against all the green in my garden, it is …