We Three Trees

I’ve been having sleepless nights over my choice for the three trees in the garden. When the inspiration for the planting first came to me I envisaged pine trees (either Pinus sysvestris or Pinus nigra), liking their evergreen, solid yet textured form as contrast with the swishy grasses beneath. For some reason I bottled out as I thought it was a rather unusual choice, and wrote in my design brief for the planting plan submission to the RHS that they would be multi-stemmed Prunus serrula. These are beautiful trees with gorgeous colourful bark and an open structure and probably the safer option.

I put in my request to the nursery for three of these but they came back to me to say that they were difficult to get hold of, so gave me the option of Cercidiphyllum japonicum. These are also elegant, multi-stemmed trees with the prettiest, almost heart shaped leaves which turn yellow, orange and pink in autumn when they smell of burnt sugar. I even went as far as to visit the nursery and choose the best three specimens that they had on site.

But I still had a niggle at the back of my mind that what I wanted, what I really, really wanted, was the Pinus, with a clean strong stem to about 1100mm so that the head of each tree could sit proudly above the grasses. Whilst procrastinating I found myself on my way back from Arley Hall where I passed a field full of exactly what I had in mind and promptly stopped the car to take a photograph. They were obviously being commercially grown en masse, all sitting in their special air pots and probably too large for my requirements. But that was it, I wasn’t going to have the Cercidiphyllum, I was going to trust my instincts and find to what I really wanted. 

'So back to Ladybrook and I now have my name against three smart looking Pinus nigra which are now awaiting their debut at Tatton in July!'

A Visit to Wildly Cumbria!

The name says it all really! Wildly Rural, a fabulous nursery right on the coast of Cumbria. After the recent glimpse of summer that we’ve had I’d hope that my visit would be on an equally sunny day but that wasn’t meant to be. Its wet and windy and I see where the Wildly comes from in their name. It’s a very exposed position and you just know that these plants will be tough enough to cope with anything!

Earlier in the year I’d agreed with David, the nursery owner, to pay a visit to discuss my choice of grasses as well as the quantity.  We are looking at around 200 individual plants but this depends on many factors, such as the size of the plants, and thus the corresponding pot size as well as the nature of the grass variety; how bulky they are. David will split some plants so we can have different sizes of the same grass to give a greater textural difference. That’s the sort of advice which is invaluable when you’re creating a show garden.

I need to think more laterally about how the plants will work together, less of a grid and more of a tapestry – how poetic! I’ve got to believe that everything will be OK on the day and realise that specific decisions cannot be made this early. I was aiming to create a set planting plan but the look I’m going for means that until I see how the plants will work together I can only work out rough percentages. We set a date for my next visit when I’ll bring along some of my perennials to set them out on the nursery floor with the grasses to work out how far apart they’ll need to be positioned from each other to create the look I’m aiming for. If some grasses are wide I may be able to set them quite far apart and therefore need fewer. David gives me a very handy hint; plant the grasses that sit along path edges at an angle so that the heart of the grass is directed towards the person walking past. Try it, it works!

Finally we decide on some specific grass species with some in reserve just in case and then I have to put my trust in Mother Nature!  

A slight panic over the paving!

Friday I met up with my landscaper Matt of Greenbelt Landscapes as we’ve had to make a significant change to the hard landscaping. Natural Paving who are supplying the stone for free can no longer get hold of the Purbeck Sands that we’d initially chosen. Such a shame as it is a stunning smooth stone, cool to the touch and a contemporary pale cream, a lovely contrast to the plants.

Matt brought along a few other samples for me to look at. One is a bright light cream, not unlike the Purbeck Sands but with a very textured finish. The other is Oyster Travertine, which has a range of beige and brown tones and although smooth to the touch, has a textured pattern. It’s hard to decide as I hanker after the original choice but end up going with the Oyster, mainly because I realise that the textured stone might blend too well with the rendered walls and end up looking too bland. The Oyster Travertine on the other hand will pick up the warm tones in the grasses and create a lovely contrast with the rendered walls.

Whilst I’m with Matt I let him know that I’ve decided to take the timber arches out of the design altogether after receiving feedback from the RHS when we submitted the design. They thought the arches were too flimsy and I don’t want to make them any more chunky, in fact we probably couldn’t as it would be hard to get the right timber in those dimensions, and any other arch design could start to look too fussy. The design theme is simplicity so I decide that the simplest solution is just to remove them. This leaves me uncertain whether to keep the timber in the design of the bench as it would be the only timber in the whole design. We decide to go with a cantilevered stone seat, keeping lines clean and simple. The materials in the garden are the background to the plants, so keeping them simple and to a minimum number (only stone and render!) will hopefully create the very sophisticated look that I envisage in my head!

A meeting with the team at Alzheimer's Society

There’s a real buzz about my second meeting at Alzheimer’s Society as we’re now all very excited that our garden has been given approval by the RHS and we can get down to planning the detail!

We discuss how logistics will work during the show open days, the main thing being to have enough people to staff the garden to chat to the public and hand out leaflets. There appear to be plenty of volunteers so it’s now a case of checking how many tickets we’ll be given and then dividing the time between everyone. Volunteers could be standing around for a long time in either blazing sunshine (it has been known!) or tropical like downpours or anything in between! Everyone will get a chance to look round the show too, so it won’t just be hard work!

The other major item on the agenda is how to maximise press coverage throughout the show, including press day on Wednesday 24^th July when the medals are dished and Ladies Day on the Friday. Various ideas to create interest around the garden are discussed, one being to use the theme of a garden party and maybe having everyone wearing fancy flowery hats on Ladies Day. Visual themes work well for the visual press! The Forget Me Not flower is a symbol of Alzheimer’s Society and someone is going to check out a seed supplier so that packets can be handed out on another day.

Publicising the efforts everyone is making in the lead up to the show is another important PR opportunity – after all the primary aim is to raise awareness of the good work of Alzheimer’s Society so every opportunity must be exploited.  This very blog can also be put to use. Laura, the PR Manager for Alzheimer’s Society nationally, is given the task of taking all the ideas we discuss to create a promotional strategy to ensure that all avenues are exploited to the full!!