Gosh, just where did March and April go?
We have been incredibly busy working on some really inspiring projects, donating a good chunk of our time to designing and planting up – on a voluntary basis, several community gardens.
Last weekend saw us curating a great fun big day on Platform 1 of Kentish Town overground station where we created a cottage garden complete with planted up old leathered boots! Our vision is to create a bucolic garden on the platform where weary travellers on their way home from work can empty their water bottles into the bucolic beds, or potter about whilst waiting for a train.
Last week also saw us planting up an absolutely wonderful garden which we have called, ‘The Listening Space,’ in the Caversham Group Practice – a health centre. This space filled with drifts of grasses, Pennisetum’s and Stipas, and inter-planted with herbaceous perennials ranging from Echinaceas and Knatias, to Rudbeckias and Achiella’s, is aimed at providing a place of refuge; of contemplation: a place of well-being. With plants bursting into life, imperceptibly growing every minute of every day now, we hope that folk will be inspired.
Wildflowers have always been a passion of ours. To this end, we were thrilled to be asked to create another wildflower garden in North London this week. Now, some may call this cheating, but we do sometimes work with wildflower turf. In terms of laying, it is just like normal garden turf, but our turf comes filled with anywhere from 20-80 flower and grass cultivars, bursting with glorious colour.
Talking about colour, we do really love it when a client gives us a strong colour brief. We are currently designing a very large project for another new client which includes major landscaping re-design. The brief is for the garden to be sexy, boho and chic, and low maintenance! The emphasis on planting in shades of green, purple and white. We are going for a look which we are calling ‘English exotic’ – more news soon.
What we are also really enjoying about working on this project is that the build will not take place until the autumn. With that in mind we would like to offer you all out there a note to self: autumn planting is MORE SUSTAINABLE. Planting at this time of year, which most folk do, places too much emphasis on watering. C’mon folks, let’s all work together to protect our environment and resource usage. Planting in the autumn allows the autumn and winter rains to gently allow roots to establish and the plants to settle in.
Another plea to you all – please don’t over mow your grass at this, or any time of year. One of the best ways to create a wildlife friendly garden is to let your grass grow long. This creates a cozy habitat for all manner of creatures. Or just simply leave an uncut area of lawn and see what grows. You will be amazed!