Seed to Success Journey
About

I think the most important thing is pleasing yourself and those around you.
If I can use my own experience of current and previous 3 gardens as an example? The thing is, no-one knows exactly how long they will live there and how much work will be required, so if you are designing for someone else it makes it a little easier, because you don’t have the same emotional connection. It may have the fabric, orientation and layout they want, but it is empathy and care that will provide harmony and balance. You don’t need to be a Botanist, that will happen over time, It needn’t be expensive, time is on your side and any fool can buy a gazebo.
I’ve probably spent as much time looking out of the upstairs windows, gazing at the space, day or night, sketching shapes, watching bird movement, small animals…cats too. The wildlife provide the flavour of the environment. They can dictate the planning and even the layout if the space is a reasonable size.
Waiting for a year was a bonus, seeing how the Seasons behave what leaf litter falls on the lawn, if there is one. What bushes need pruning….and will children like it and could it provide enough interest and affection to encourage them to be involved.
I was lucky with this place, it was virtually devoid of intrusion. A big lawn, a retaining wall 5 feet high around 3 sides, a 100 slab patio at the front and 60 at the back. 80 metres of Privet around an eighth of an acre of triangular ground, so it was from my eyrie upstairs that I planned every square metre.
A neighbouring house has a huge Sycamore providing cover and shade and a nesting place…but it sheds its’ whirly seeds like dandruff in September. That’s where I put a roughly oblong rockery – 3 tons of Yorkshire walling stone rubble with a small flight of steps splitting it in 2 then filling the voids with gravel. The whirlies take root and send little Sycamores all over the place, so it’s easier to pull them from gravel than anything else. We also built a picnic table, a Hedgehog house then benches and a deck from decking boards…a local American wirehair cat has liaisons underneath it with a Burmese, but we try not to notice.
Luckily I have a son who throws stuff around like chaff. Rocks, slabs, bags of cobbles…I needed to move a Teak bench down the stairs when I started on the back garden – he lifted it over his head and down he went…I couldn’t look.
He puts 60 litre bags of bark under his arm…and he loves showing off. He also likes the fact that plants mostly have 2 names – one Latin and one common for ease of explanation. So, he is picking up a third language en-route (He is quite fluent in Polish from an ex.) but I digress.
The front patio hasn’t changed much except I turned the whole thing, slab by slab through 45 degrees to reflect the triangular plot. I edged it in stone and infilled the gaps with cobbles bedded in mortar like they do in Scotland. I also built a low fence and a sympathetic Japanese trellis for hanging bird feeders and a spot for an upcycled Victorian cast iron bench. That took a year. It is also ideal for watching Goldfinches, Collar doves and Bluetits.
Everything was taking shape, 55 metres of wooden fencing around the plot and on the East side of the house, we built a wooden shed and a flight of steps from railway sleepers with a decking platform, another rockery for Alpines, a Herb garden, a composter, an Insectarium – all reflecting the triangular theme. This is continued around to the rear patio, down another flight to a South facing sunken garden. We split the stair in half it was 9 feet wide…and built a waterfall with a small pond…I like waterlilies 😊 and Primula vialli. It is also a perfect spot for a Grapevine which was great until last Winter when a storm blew over its Pergola and snapped it in two…but thankfully it has recovered. I need to source some bamboo…
We can sit outside now, at any time of day in shade or sunshine to suit our mood, sometimes reading, taking random photos, chatting, eating a meal or chucking kids around. We have resident field Mice, Squirrels, Hedgehogs, the occasional Fox and Stoat, Frogs and Toads and as of this year 21 species of bird.
In conclusion, the importance of design is collating all the good things in an environment and building atmosphere and harmony.