Me and My BIG Work...!!!

Hello Folks,

As you probably know, over the years, I haven't tended to use my blog posts for any kind of self promotion. I tend to write up the odd post, generally on subjects that interest me, and send them out and on to the WebSphere, mainly to the many people I know within horticulture: friends, head gardeners and designers etc. Anyway, for this post, I thought I would showcase a little of the kind of work I do.

In recent years I have 'sort of' fallen into quite a niche category with regards my gardening work. Primarily I am still a maintenance gardener; maintaining and working skilfully in borders is still very much what I do. However, in recent years, I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to design and develop many gardens (often aged and neglected), turning tired borders into something more colourful, abundant, luxuriant and naturalistic.

To a certain extent, it's much harder working with existing plantings than it is when designing a new border from scratch. In a typically neglected border you may find that you you can keep 20-50% of the plants currently there, whilst creating planting opportunities for the remainder.

Of course, the problem here is that it's a bit like working with a jigsaw puzzle that has half its pieces missing: you really have to drill down and into the minutiae of the gaps, and seek out individual plants that can work with those around it. Here of course, you're talking about height, colour, form and texture, as well as how any new introduction will get along with its neighbours, in terms of competition and invasiveness.

Obviously, there's a fine line between renovating a border - working with what's already there - or simply deciding to rip the whole lot out start again!

Anyway, here's a few projects I've worked on over the past few years. Remember, all these gardens/borders have been developed over time, with me simply going there - as the gardener - usually for just a few hours every week. It's a very holistic, natural way to develop a garden. I have been blessed by having great customers, most of which have become friends over the years. I work closely with them, and their gardens, in order to give them the gardens they deserve.

Instead of showing you the individual borders, in a kind of before-and-after way, I'll show you a series of pictures just giving you some idea of how neglected they were, followed by how they looked after I had been influencing them for a while...

This was a funny one. This entire area was about to be turfed. I was standing there with the clients drinking a cup of tea when I noticed this S-shaped curve accidentally created by a builder walking (swerving??) across the soil with a wheelbarrow. I said, 'hey, now there's a shape of a border if ever I saw one!'
That was the start of a small'ish New Perennial island bed idea.

So, the turf was laid and we started work on breaking up the soil and incorporating a decent mulch.

Soil improved and a design plan created. I tend to use 5 x 2L pots per square metre in a domino fashion, and then infill gaps with dots, spires and annuals. The following pictures show the results from just a few months after planting (its first summer) as well as images from the next summer... just 18 months after the original planting.

The following garden was one that had been neglected for many years. Pretty much all the beds and borders from around the garden had to be grubbed out, weeded, the soil improved and so on! It was evolutionary work, with me going there, only for roughly 3 hours a week, slowly improving the entire garden as I went. I still work there to this day, and yes, I'm still improving the garden with each and every visit. The clients are fantastic! The following pictures show how it has developed over the past 4 years.

...... and how it looks now.

Again, another small garden, but boy was it neglected..!!

It's worth bearing in mind that I've now 'done' (influenced, designed & planted etc) dozens of gardens such as these. Each one is very different with a unique set of problems: tree stumps, invasive weeds and poor soil etc. Yet all it takes is time, care, nurture and attention, along with a lot of initial grunt work.....

As you can see, very neglected borders, full of many nasties! The following pictures show what it looked later that summer.

And now for something completely different. This was one of my very first renovations. It was a difficult job, as it was quite a steep rockery in desperate need of sorting out - very neglected! I felt like a mountain goat armed with a mattock grubbing out large shrubs. Some 10 years on, I don't think I would have the strength, or the will, to do that now! Again, working with a great client, on a weekly basis, I quickly commenced taking out the vast majority of the plantings there: aged shrubs, rather sad-looking herbaceous material, and many many weeds of course.

..... and how it looked a few months later. Even at this stage, it still would've taken another year or two to bulk up. I left this particular job soon after these images were taken. I wonder what it looks like now??

Oh well, that's pretty much about it really.... for now at least Of course, I've done (and continue to do) loads more gardening, designing, tweaking and editing virtually every day of the week. You can never underestimate how complex improving borders can be. As I say, it's often a neglected jigsaw puzzle, with many pieces missing. You get a feel for past glories and beauties within the borders: very often its past begins to reveal itself the moment you start digging and scraping around.

I'll leave you with just a few random images from a few other borders I've planted up.

Thanks for reading!