create a wonderful garden to share

Next project is to put in a place to sit when it’s a bit cold or damp to look at the garden. So I am getting a little bench seat with a roof and sides, and putting it at the back of the garden

It’s great to be getting on with this ambition at last. One of the first tasks is to prepare. Take out all the unwanted stuff – overwhelming conifers and sort out the drainage – waterlogged clay soil is not great for plants. Now the overlarge conifers in the picture are no more. Have finally started putting in some trees. A row of small Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’ have gone in first. These will grow to about 4 metres and will retain their leaves all year. They have a light canopy, so won’t be so overwhelming.

I learnt a lot about the use of pools of water in the garden.. from integrating the water seamlessley into the landscape to creating a journey to the water as a challenge..
but most of all i learnt that if you want water to reflect the sky you have to make the background of the pool dark

Every great garden should have a treehouse.. somwhere to escape to and get inspired by the separation from the rest of life the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. Alwick garden in Northumberland has an enormous one with a resturant in it. Maybe not quite on that sort of scale, but it’s great to be up in the trees above the ground.

the first idea is to have a central feature which is a long rectangular pond – but with grassy edges that slope right down into the water – it will have an avenue of trees along each side, underplanted with woodland plants. There will be rills coming at right angles off the main pond going towards the wooded area, with stepping stones over them, so that you can get across.

No fish in it ‘cause they eat all the other creatures. Some nice native plants, planted in baskets, so they don’t get too invasive. Yellow flag iris, purple loostrife, arrowhead that sort of thing.