City Gardens

Forgotton Spaces

City & Country Landscapes — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:40:22 +0000

SOMERSET HOUSE EXHIBITION

Christmas is a good time to find space, in between family visits, to go and do something for yourself. We went to Somerset House in London to see the Forgotten Spaces exhibition. In small rooms, perhaps old stables, there were plans and exhibits set up to show how different areas of London, currently unloved or unused, could be used to good and positive effect. I loved the 51 Spires project, using the spires of London churches that have a useable workspace. These areas are to be offered to struggling artists and creators so that they can rent wonderful office space within the city. How inspiring (excuse the pun) to work up in the church tower! Some of the projects on display were modest - good ideas for ‘bee houses’ underneath forgotten and draughty staircases. Some were really well thought through - community markets, vegetable growing areas, market gardens and new spaces for food festivals. All of the ideas put forward had the community at its heart and it’s great to know that our designers and architects of the future are already thinking in this way; that the heart of communication ( a word very close to community - interesting eh?) is always at the forefront of their thinking. My favourite scheme was the plan to re-introduce Atlantic Salmon to the River Wandle. My mum was brought up in South London and used to fish in the Wandle as a child. For many years, the river has been subjected to sewage and industrial outfall and can you believe that it was once an important breeding ground for Salmon, that was then caught and sold in London? Amazing. Well, the good news is that the sewage outfall has been moved and the industrial effluent cleaned up and it’s hoped that salmon will return. The proposed salmon leap design is an area where the public can walk beside the river, watching, through a glass tunnel, where the salmon will leap and go on to spawn again. I think this is fantastic and I love regeneration on a grand scale. I know there will never be the money to do this properly, but if we could only clean up our rivers just a bit, and bring back the fish……. I know that domestic garden design is on a tiny scale, compared to these huge ideas, but when I sit on the train going to London and look at all those depressing back gardens - all with their own type of effluent chucked out of the back doors - I hope that this year will enable me to create at least some wonderful spaces that, at the moment, are forgotten.

Forgotten Spaces is Free to get in and will run until January 29th. The exhibition is open from 10-6 daily. Check the Somerset House website for more details. Fab cafe too!

Sow sow

City & Country Landscapes — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:55:08 +0000

Well, it’s been perfect weather for sowing vegetables. We had all that warm sunshine, so I covered up the beds with bubble wrap and weighed it down for a couple of days. The seeds I sowed in the small poly tunnel seemed to germinate overnight and now I’ve go a great little crop of carrots and lettuce coming through. I’ve thinned them out so that they have space to mature but I want quite small carrots (they’re the expensive ones to buy) so they’re not thinned too much. The lettuce leaves can be picked as they mature to leave space for the others to grow even bigger. The parsnips have all germinated, as have the peas and I have now sown the second lot of seeds. This time I planted leeks, beetroot, swede, more carrots (for bigger main crops) and more lettuces to carry on when the others have all been eaten. The potatoes are ready to go out too and I’m going to grow these in big black barrels. There isn’t much room now for other things and I want to get the onions in too, and leave space for beans. I’ve bought lots of herbs and potted these up near the kitchen door where they’ll get some sunshine. I’ve already started picking the mint to go with the new potatoes they’re selling in the supermarket. They taste so wonderful, I’d be happy to have just them for dinner!

U3A

City & Country Landscapes — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:41:55 +0000

I gave a talk this afternoon to the U3A. I hoped everyone came along because they all love their gardens and not for the tea and biscuits or because my Mum had paid them. Actually, it was great to be able to talk to ‘real’ gardeners. Not for them the low maintenance border, and these are BUSY people. Apparently, we broke the record for the number of attendees so it just goes to show how passionate people are about that space outside. The U3A is a brilliant organisation, and there were so many things booked; visits to gardens, holidays away, trips to Holland next year. I’m looking forward to retiring and joining one day! Everyone’s on line and all wanted to know the web sites I’d recommended. I talked about the basic principles of design and I wanted to get in a shot about wavy borders. There were plenty of sagacious nods when I spoke about the flower borders in the lawn with curves. At the end, many of them said they were going home to straighten up the edges of their planted beds! I love giving talks and imparting some of my passion for the design basics. It’s so rewarding when people come up and say they’ve enjoyed themselves. I’m giving some talks at Parham House on Sunday as part of their NGS day. I’ll be in the Seed Room. Do come along!

Are you sitting comfortably?

City & Country Landscapes — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:22:56 +0000

When we create our homes, we have various rooms with places to sit; sometimes to relax, and sometimes to sit upright and eat. I think that the garden should provide the same kind of seating arrangements. Gardens should have tables and chairs - a place to have breakfast and read the weekend papers, preferably not in a windy spot and with some shade so you don’t get engrossed in the SuDoku and find you’ve burnt the back of your neck in the sun. The garden should always have an enticing place for a snooze. This needs a more laid back, squidgy kind of chair. I love these Adirondack chairs and a recent client tells me they’re incredibly comfortable too. The snooze chair should have cushions and a throw, in case it gets a bit chilly. A table beside you for tea and magazines means you won’t have to try and balance your cup on the lawn. Gardens should be such practical things. I’m always amazed that people use their gardens as such receptacles for rubbish and don’t keep them looking wonderful. How can you wash the kitchen floor and then put the mop outside the back door? You wouldn’t go and put your mop in the middle of the sitting room! Treat your garden with love and respect. Create lovely little areas for seating, eating, reading and snoozing and this summer it will be better than home.

Hard hats at the ready

City & Country Landscapes — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:33:46 +0000

I have just started work on the plans and design for a wonderful job. It’s in Tooting and the client has bought this gorgeous house - well, it WILL be gorgeous - overlooking the green with mature trees all around with tree preservation orders in abundi. It should be fun working with all of these in the way! The house was formerly a mental establishment and built in 1914. It’s been owned by the NHS and subsequently no money has been spent on it for years. This is SUCH a blessing, as all the interior details are intact. There was no money to rip out ceilings or fireplaces and there they are today, absolutely gorgeous. There are little built in wooden seats in odd nooks and crannies, huge wooden fireplaces with mouldings and the ceilings are to die for…. The staircase and hallway had been blocked up with horrible landings and stud walls divided the space. I have no idea why. Now those walls are down, and you can see the full grandeur of the hallway. The brickwork has gorgeous little mouldings and designs, the windows are stained glass and the chimmneys are works of art. I suppose I should talk about the garden, but of course this is the area that has also been neglected, and not to the good of the property. I’ve got lots of ideas and plans and the client is going to do things properly, which is a joy to a designer, architect and builders. At the moment, I don’t know where to start but we’ll get the professional surveyor on site next week and get every single one of those protected trees plotted and get going. Onwards and upwards and never a dull moment in this job. I love it.

Shady characters

City & Country Landscapes — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:01:25 +0000

I never liked shady borders. In the past, I lived near the sea, with south facing sunny planting places and grew plants that thrived in the sunshine. Then I moved ‘over the Downs’ and discovered frost, car scrapers and dead Echiums. The treasures I brought from my seaside garden withered and died in the first winter and the heavy clay soil wouldn’t let me work in the garden for weeks on end. Huge trees in my new front garden took all my light and moisture and only ivy crept across the ground, mocking my inability to repeat my glorious borders. But now - haha - I have conquered the dry soil and trees and lack of light and moisture and nutrients. I’ve discovered plants that I love and will thrive in the new places I have created for them. The trick to the soil was bags and bags of horse manure. I still have it delivered in huge quantities each autumn. This has enriched the soil and added moisture where my plants are competing with the trees. I struggled with plants like bergenias, which I’d always derided, but after discovering ’silberlicht’ and Bressingham White’, I was won over. The leaves give me structure in the winter and now the flowers have come along too. Dicentra spectabilis ‘alba’ is one of my favourite shade lovers. Don’t buy the pink one. It’s like a horrible pink lipstick colour that makes you look washed out. The white is much more elegant. The lovely thing about white plants is that they glow in the shade and add another depth and dimension to the gloom. My other favourite white shade plants are lamium, white helleborus - Potters Wheel, the tiny cornus canadensis and pachysandra terminalis. These look wonderful grouped around box balls and polystichum, the evergreen ferns. Add some white muscari hyacinths and some larger white hyacinths too and the border starts to become one of my favourites in the garden.

Where have all the flowers gone?

City & Country Landscapes — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:58:31 +0000

We have been planting up three gardens this week and getting the plants has been sooooo difficult. March is usually a great time for herbaceous plants but the nurseries seem to be struggling to fill the huge amounts of orders that have flooded in so far this month. All the initial plants that were grown have sold out, and new stock is still too young to leave the nursery. We usually send off our orders and back they come, all priced up and with little variation. This time there are lots of exchanges to consider, and plants that just aren’t available at all for love nor money. It’s easy to think that one plant is very much like another if it’s the same type of thing. Like a skimmia for example. As a plant type, they may seem similar, but they’re not. I love Skimmia ‘Kew Green’ and I’m afraid the old fashioned one, Rubella, just doesn’t do it for me. It’s much too pinkly unwell and Victorian looking, whereas Kew Green is brilliantly coloured, huge and architectural. Alliums, too, have become so popular but if you expect the kind of effect in the picture above, you could be quite disappointed when you buy a pot in the nursery and they turn out to be a dirty white colour. You have to know your varieties and this is where your garden designer can help. Not only do they know PLANTS, but they have the secret knowledge of the very best variety too. They will understand what grows in your garden, has the best flowers or leaves and will stand the test of time. It’s not for nothing that you pay us the fees you know!

Counting Blessings

City & Country Landscapes — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:15:00 +0000

Spring has sprung, and the gardens are starting to take on the lush new growth that tells us we are on the right road. The clocks will go forward very soon and the light levels will make everything grow like mad. I can’t help but feel that my emotions and passion for the garden are on hold today after the terrible images from Japan and the tsunami, which seems to be more devastating than the earthquake itself.

8.9 on the richter scale! You can’t even begin to imagine it. I was in an earthquake once. A very small one by comparison. It’s so unbelievable to see the ground under your feet wave up and down, as though the sea itself has washed underneath the tarmac. Cars bounced backwards and forwards like children’s toys, smashing against each other with complete disregard for their paintwork. I was in a record shop, and across the street I saw women in a laundry climbing into the metal tumble driers for safety. In the shop, we hurried underneath tables as cassettes and records fell from the shelves around us. It made me want to get away from any country where the very ground under my feet couldn’t be trusted to stay perfectly still. It was a frightening experience, and I can only imagine how those poor Japanese people are feeling today. A friend told me that he knew somebody from the New Zealand earthquake last week who had lost his brother. He was sitting in a restaurant talking to him, and then the ground opened up and completely swallowed him and he was gone. Just like that. Forever. And the ground closed again. I could have nightmares about that. At the moment, no amount of new growth or lighter nights can remove that kind of horror from somebody’s life. We are just so lucky that our lives can encompass the joy of Spring. And count our blessings - yet again.

Member of The Society of Garden Designers!

City & Country Landscapes — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:28:55 +0000

Well, what a wonderful day! I have passed my Society of Garden Designers adjudication and I am now a Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers. To the layman, this may not mean much, but for those hardy souls who have worked on their construction drawings, their setting out plans, their planting schedules and have been through the Forum, Pre-registration and Adjudication and have their own MSGD it will mean SO much, and they will nod in sympathetic understanding and also remember that wonderful, wonderful moment when they heard they’d passed. It’s taken around three years to get through all the different stages and many designers feel that it’s so difficult that they’re daunted by the task ahead. Well, I won’t pretend it’s been easy or that I’ve always felt like carrying on. There’s been many a muttering of “Flippin organization. Why do I need them!” But now I’ve passed, of course, I will be their greatest ambassador and take up my mantle of membership with a degree of humility not shown in this blog! So, here I am - letters after my name at last: Louisa Bell MSGD.

The beauty of dereliction

City & Country Landscapes — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:41:38 +0000

Derelict houses are so romantic, full of promise and mystery. The broken windows, collapsing infrastructure and faded grandeur all tell of another era, a time long gone when others looked out of windows, stood on balconies and saw another world. They say that there are plans to turn these wonderful buildings into a five star hotel at Trentham. I’d be one of the first to book in. I’d almost like to see part of it kept in it’s current state, with furnishings to match, like the curtains in Miss Haversham’s room, crumbling away to dust as they’re pulled to let in the light again. Tom Stuart Smith has done a wonderful job of matching the new Italian gardens to theses buildings. Some of the structures were hidden behind hoardings and I so wanted to climb over them and see what lay behind. I understand that they’re probably dangerous and there’s falling masonry, but I’d take the risk! I would so love to be involved in a restoration project on this scale. At the moment I’m working on a wonderful design where part of a large Arts and Crafts country house is being completely renovated and I’m there, in the gardens, making sure it all ties together. Perhaps it’s the romantic in me, but looking to the future always involves looking back at the past too.

The contemporary border in Winter

City & Country Landscapes — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:22:58 +0000

I enjoyed walking around Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire yesterday, but for the novice gardener it would have been nigh on impossible to know what plants were in the borders. I spent ages writing down plant names and varieties into my notebook, but there was very little to be seen at present. I know this is the worse time of year for the garden, but for clients we have to acheive form, colour and structure. The wonderful thing about Trentham is that they have the space to give over huge areas to purely herbaceous or grass planting, but when clients tell me that they love Piet Odoulf’s gardens I would have to show them this picture of the Piet Odoulf border at Trentham on a March day. The Tom Stuart Smith planting (my hero) managed to show colour within the herbaceous leaves that still had some structure left over, or new growth emerging. The sight of the huge Eremurus buds pushing through the ground was almost primeval and all true gardeners are excited by the anticipation of that bud and what it will become. But the visitors to the garden, the ordinary families, who don’t know an Eremurus from an elephant, may have been a little disappointed.

The pond deepens

City & Country Landscapes — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:37:39 +0000

Building ponds can be difficult when it doesn’t stop raining. This was an existing concrete pond, that leaked, so we are completely re-lining and using the opportunity to build a new circular terrace that will look as though it cantilevers out over the water. We put a ’sump’ into the bottom of the pond, to prevent water coming up underneath the new liner, but the sump was below the water table which is clearly affected by local underground springs, so new drainage has now been put in to alleviate this problem. You can’t have water coming UP into the pond! Now we’re on the muddy bit with the rocks going in around the edge. Our local quarry is no longer producing stone so we went to a quarry in Horsham and hand-picked all the stone for the project. The client mentioned the words ‘Stonehenge’ yesterday and I’m glad the guys have got lifting equipment on site. It will be soon be time for the plants to be ordered and I’m really looking forward to the next stage.

Perfect carrots

City & Country Landscapes — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:04:45 +0000

March is the time to start off your own vegetables. So many clients request vegetable patches now. It used to be a herb bed in a sunny spot by the back door, but now many clients wish to grow a good selection of vegetables. It’s not really about the cost saving, but more about the flavour and the real pleasure that goes with digging up your own spuds. The clocks will go forward in just a few weeks, bringing lighter days. March winds will dry out the wet soil making a crumbly texture that’s perfect for seed-sowing. Try to warm up your soil a little before sowing by covering with a long polythene cloche, or tunnel or even black bin liners weighted down over the sowing area. After a couple of days - and if the sun shines - the soil will begin to warm underneath. The first seeds that I sow are parsnips as they need a really long growing season. It’s hard to believe that anything will germinate in February weather, but getting them in early will give you a great crop this winter. Parsnips take ages to show, so mark the row well and don’t despair. They’re in there somewhere. I’m also going to start off my carrots - Early Nantes - into raised beds with a good depth of top soil for lovely long straight roots. If a carrot encounters a stone in the way of it’s growth path, it will fork and go off in different directions. Don’t give it that choice. Sow carrots fairly thinly because they do have a good germination rate. I want some small, bunched carrots so I’m also growing a baby carrot variety and these will be sown much closer together. I do try to be organic in the vegetable patch, so there won’t be any pesticides, herbicides or articificial feeds used, but I dug in lots of good organic matter last year which is now all crumbly and lovely. I remember Sarah Raven saying not to feed the flower beds, or they’ll be all leaves, but feed your vegetables for abundant crops. The vegetables will really be underway over the next few weeks so check the blog for tips and sowings.

Country Estates

City & Country Landscapes — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:54:49 +0000

It’s been a very busy week for design appointments and we are pleased to have so much work going forward for the rest of the year. I visited the most wonderful house - in the middle of nowhere and with 47 acres. I always think that owning woodland and fields is a very special responsibility. You’re looking after something for posterity and future generations. I love to see people taking those responsibilities seriously. This will be a lovely garden design as the house is all Arts and Crafts. Having a research project, along with the design, is always enjoyable when it’s so important to make sure the garden matches the style of the house. The internet is a great place for research but you really can’t beat old books and the reference library. Listen please Mr. Cameron!

SGD 30th Anniversary

City & Country Landscapes — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:35:11 +0000

Last night I attended the 30th birthday anniversary of the Society of Garden Designers in London. It was held at the Royal Horticultural Societies’ Exhibition Halls and was a lovely event. Garden designers rarely get the chance to meet up and exchange ideas and news. Ours can be a lonely occupation at times - sitting at our drawing boards and computers with just the Boden delivery man to say Hello! It was great to see the displays of work and realize what a talented bunch we all are. I was talking to another designer and we were musing about the number of trees that we must have all planted over the years throughout the country - and probably the world too! As designers, we tend to plant mature trees and I think it’s great that the country is a greener place because of us!

The pond continues

City & Country Landscapes — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:41:07 +0000

It’s been a bit of a miserable week. Rain has stopped play a couple of times. However, Kevin’s leaving the crutches behind sometimes, so the knee progresses. I’ve realized that I’m not cut out for long-term care and would like somebody to make ME a cup of tea now. I’m enjoying going out to site and seeing the guys more often than I would normally. I usually visit once a week or so, and Kevin looks after the day to day stuff. It’s been good to see the progress on a regular basis. Today I came home with a fish from the pond - with the client’s permission of course. I brought him home, sloshing around, in the back of the car in a muck bucket (and water). He’s now happily ensconced with new fishy friends.

New start

City & Country Landscapes — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:26:24 +0000

This week, we’ve started in Pulborough - in a pond. Unfortunately, Kevin slipped down the bank on Monday morning and we spent most of the afternoon at A&E. He’s on crutches now with a ruptured ligament in his knee, so feeling a bit sorry for himself, understandably. But…. life goes on…. and the pond is now empty and ready for it’s new life. We’re replacing the old concrete with a new liner, and putting in moss-covered sandstone rocks to create an entirely naturalistic new pond. Also, we’re cantilevering a terrace over the pond, and creating a new curved flight of steps down to this lovely seating area. This is one of those sites where every single level measurement was critical. One of the setting out points, for the sweep of the steps, was in the pond itself so - luckily - I knew it would be empty when the time came!

North Chailey

City & Country Landscapes — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:42:23 +0000

New Housing Estate

This new garden was completely water-logged when we carried out the initial survey. We’ve installed land drains to help the garden, which has been built by the developer over a solid clay pan, compacted by the building works. Planting will make a big difference to the final landscape - watch this space - but privacy from the neighbouring houses has been addressed with trellis panels surrounding the terrace, soon to be covered with scented jasmine. Multi-stemmed silver birch trees cover the key windows, without taking light from the garden. Oak sleepers have addressed the levels. We shall plant this up in March and post more photos then by which time the trees will have come into leaf. In the autumn we shall return to plant 500 tulips too. From building site to garden. All in three weeks.

Wonderful bulbs

City & Country Landscapes — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:26:54 +0000

Scented hyacinths

As February blows in, the garden is out there pushing things through like a mother-to be. The hyacinth bulbs come up through the ground, the green nose emerging like an inquisitive animal. Around them, the smaller muscari hyacinths are sending out stems too. I always plant my hyacinths - both varieties - in large-ish groups and always in white too. They’re just around the box balls and pyramids so that the evergreen foliage makes a great backdrop. Planting bulbs in Autumn is a gutty job, but the display in Spring always makes it worthwhile.

BALI Awards 2010

City & Country Landscapes — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:50:50 +0000

We are delighted to have won an award in this year’s prestigious BALI National Awards for a Hove garden, completed last year.

It was really disappointing that we couldn’t get to the awards ceremony, due to the suspension of all train services. The cars were stuck in the drive and we managed to get to Three Bridges to find that no trains were running. Oh well. All dressed up and nowhere to go! It wasn’t the first time and probably won’t be the last!