Design and construction

The crimplene garden 

Please! Can we all raise our standards just a bit!

What are your expectations when it comes to a garden? Don’t you think that you deserve to have somewhere fabulous, amazing and gorgeous outside your door?

Things have changed so much in the last generation. There was a time when being forty meant you were resigned to trousers with elasticated waists and crimplene was the only suit material. Mothers wore pinnies, dads were the only ones allowed to wire a plug and the Ford Anglia was about as fast as it got.

In just a small time, just a few short years, we have gone from a life of no choice to multiple choice and a throwaway society. Mums and dads have better clothes sense than their children and we can all borrow each other’s stuff.
Houses have digital things and huge TVs and the Roberts Radio is seen as an icon of nostalgic style. Baking and dusting has been superseded by the ping of piercing film and microwaves and mum dashing off to the gym.

Yet somehow, our gardens are still back there in the crimplene age. People don’t seem to think that they deserve a garden that matches their house, clothes or personality. We buy awful things for the garden that we’d never have indoors. My own courtyard looks like a bomb’s hit it at the moment. But I have an excuse. The builders did it.

Please, please think about having a lovely garden next year. If it was a room, you wouldn’t be so neglectful and thoughtless. Do you really think that your garden does you justice? Do your friends go “Wow” when they look out of the door? Are they just desperate to get out there and explore?

I know getting the garden done hasn’t been a priority up until (hopefully) now, but do think about putting something lovely in its place next year. You could be sitting out there and really enjoying life if you get yourself organised.

You wouldn’t dream of wearing a baggy old cardigan and slippers, or a big pinafore over your clothes would you? So why do you want your garden to look like a flipping time warp?

I know you think that I’m just saying this so you call up and book us to design and build your garden (ok, I admit this would be nice!) but also, I honestly do know what fantastic pleasure everyone gets from their garden when it’s been built properly. We all shop, hoping for that feeling of pleasure, but it’s so transient and sometimes has the opposite effect. A garden isn’t like that. Every client says to me that they haven’t looked back. The garden is a joy and has undoubtedly been worth every single penny.
Ok, I think I’ve nagged you enough. The rest, as they say, is up to you.

Plants

The Poinsettia

The Poinsettia is a plant we all associate with Christmas. It’s native to Mexico and grows to ten feet tall in its natural environment! If you are buying one for Christmas, choose one that has little or no yellow pollen in its centre. This means it’s a young, fresh plant. Once it has shed it’s pollen the red bracts will start to fall. The red ‘flowers’ of Poinsettia aren’t flowers at all, but red leaf bracts. It was brought from Mexico into the United States by then Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He found it growing by the roadside and although a wonderful statesmen, he is better known for this horticultural introduction bearing his name than any bill he passed. The plant’s latin name is Euphorbia pulcherrima, meaning very beautiful, and this name was given to the plant by a German botanist who found it growing in a crack in his greenhouse. Amazing. Over 60 million plants are sold in America each year, and in this country, 80% of plants are bought by women over 40. I must just about scrape in!

Keep the plants in a fairly light place away from radiators and drafts. Don’t expose to low temperatures at all, and six hours of light daily is fine. Lastly, never keep the plants after Christmas. As soon as the decorations get put away, get rid of the plant too. There is nothing worse than a Poinsettia on a hall table in March with a skinny, anorexic stem. These are Christmas plants and only Christmas plants. Being able to keep them afterwards is not a talent, it’s just sad.

Things to do

House plants

Moving from the cold and damp outdoors, let’s look at indoor plants this week. I love growing plants indoors, and we have a conservatory that houses some special things in huge pots. I have two towering obelisks of jasmine and plumbago that are taking over. At this time of year, I do love the Streptocarpus and smelly things like Stephanotis. You have to be strict with house plants. I know it sounds bossy, but just imagine that a super magazine is coming around to photograph your house. Just look at the plants in your sitting room or around the house. Would their artistic director be rushing around bringing those glorious pots into the frame?  Do you have a yucca plant that you’ve saved since student days because it has sentimental value? Is there anything growing in your house with yellowing leaves and an almost denuded stem? Would the nursery buy it back from you?

House plants should be things of beauty; healthy with glossy leaves, lovely flowers and in gorgeous pots. I can almost sense you looking up guiltily at that thing on the windowsill.

At this time of the year, don’t overwater plants. Far more are killed by overwatering than drought. Don’t feed them – unless they’re about to flower (like Christmas Cactus) and cut back any dead growth or leaves. If something is looking particularly miserable then cut it back really hard. It has two chances, and could send out new growth and become beautiful again. If only it were that easy as you pass 50!