As harmony is to a tune, so colour is to a garden: it gives a more precise feeling and mood to the under¬lying design. Colour alone cannot make a garden, but it can enrich the design and highlight different parts of the scheme at different times. It can attract atten¬tion by means of bright Read more...
From time to time most gardeners long for an all-green garden. It is a longing for clarity and simplicity, for a rest from the business of gardening. The in¬spiration may be found in a formal garden: picture a white-painted weatherboard house with a long veran¬dah overlooking still trees and Read more...
The interiors of Victorian houses were known for their fussiness and crowding detail; so it was with the gardens of the high Victorian period. Labour was cheap and numerous gardeners could be employed, removing worries about whether a garden style might be labour intensive or not. The period was Read more...
Geographical location
Climate is all-important because it dictates the kinds of plants you can grow and exerts an immense in¬fluence on design. If you have moved to a new area it is easy to discover average temperatures and rainfall, but you must always allow for extremes.
Regional Read more...
These have become popular in recent years in the wake of such famous examples as the white garden at Sissinghurst. They represent an extremely disci¬plined form of gardening in that the gardener has to work with a very limited palette. This can have its advantages: the emphasis is thrown back on Read more...