When developing a garden I imagine that for most of us the first consideration is the visual: colour schemes, shapes and forms, composition. We might also think about choosing plants which provide fragrance that we can enjoy with our morning coffee or evening glass of wine, as I discussed in a previous blog. But how many of us consider the role of sound in the way we experience gardens and green spaces, never mind deliberately incorporate elements which contribute to and enhance the soundscape? Continue reading
Author: Green City Gardens
Cake and Community
Last Sunday, at the end of National Allotment Week, we had what has become our annual Summer Social at our allotment colony. Essentially this is an afternoon gathering at the allotment site for any plot holders who fancy getting together with their fellow Grow Your Own enthusiasts. Our site is only small and this, coupled with the usual August holiday absentees, meant attendance was as ever modest. Still I find this event a reliably cheering experience. Continue reading
Creating a focal point using containers
One of the things about having a postage stamp sized garden is that you can see pretty much all of it all of the time. Design concepts such as having themed ‘rooms’ and creating ‘mystery’ by deliberately obscuring the view of a feature from certain angles are lovely ideas, but nigh on impossible to achieve if you are working with 30m² of space. Indeed accommodating attractive planting alongside practical features such as bins, water butts and washing lines can be a key challenge when garden proportions are limited. Thinking about where the eye is naturally drawn to in a garden, and where it is you would like it to rest, can be a big part of balancing the aesthetic and the pragmatic.
RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2018
We are in the midst of the garden show season with seemingly an event somewhere almost every weekend. Tatton Park is my nearest RHS Flower Show but it’s been a few years since I last attended and I was interested to see what was being showcased. Visiting a large garden show really brings home what a vast industry there is around gardening and horticulture with numerous suppliers of tools, landscaping features, and other ‘lifestyle’ accoutrements. There are an amazing array of independent specialist nurseries, the displays for some of which are as stunning as the carefully designed show gardens which are the centrepiece of the event, and the focus of this blog. Continue reading
The Violet Palm
I have a confession to make. Despite my love of all things green and leafy, historically I have been pretty hopeless with houseplants. They are generally to be found looking slightly sad on windowsills around our home having been either over or under watered, under fed and left in their too small pots for too long (maybe ‘a sadness of houseplants should be the collective noun). However, when one of my favourite local coffee shops announced they were taking over the unit next door to open a plant shop, naturally it piqued my interest.
