What is the best plan of action when first you move to a new garden or take over an existing old garden?
Hasten slowly. Drastic alterations made within weeks or even days of moving to a new garden, will almost certainly be regretted in the leisure of years to come. Especially, this applies to the removal of large trees and shrubs for, once gone, they cannot be replanted and new stock will take a great many years to reach significant proportions.
The virgin garden: Make a list of all the essential features that you hope to have in your garden. Do you, for instance, want a vegetable garden, a herb garden, a greenhouse, a garden shed, a lawn; do you want roses, rhododendrons or no shrubs at all; are there particular types of tree that you have always wanted if only you had space; are the goldfish outgrowing the fish-tank and in need of a pool to play in; are you tired of 'Pick your own' and like the idea of 'Grow your own' instead? Once you have drawn up this basic list, give a little thought to how much time you have to devote to the garden and roughly how much money you will be able to spend on it - initially and over the next five years. Then look at the garden from the highest vantage point you can find (usually this will be a bedroom window), take a pad of plain paper, sketch roughly the outline of the plot and then begin to doodle. No matter that you can't draw; anyone can produce a sketch that they can understand themselves. Jot down roughly where the basic features on your short list might fit in.
The established garden: Make no major changes and certainly don't remove any healthy trees for a year. Then look very carefully at the existing design to see if it really works as well as it should. Is the herb garden close to the kitchen; is the compost heap convenient for depositing household waste, yet screened from view; are the winter flowering shrubs at the far end of the garden where no-one ever goes in winter; are the scented plants actually in positions where someone will appreciate the scent - close to a seat, a door or a window for instance; have some of the shrubs, planted ten or twenty years ago, outgrown their original positions to the detriment of their neighbours? Some of these things will be apparent fairly soon; others, you will have to wait some months, if not a whole season, to appreciate. Moving to a garden in Winter, for example, even the most experienced gardeners might find it hard to identify all the leafless shrubs and, until you have lived through a Spring, there is just no telling what bulbous treasures the apparently barren earth might yield.
Is it better to have a fence, a wall or a hedge as the garden boundary?
In general a hedge is best because it is durable, flexible (won't be blown over by gales) and harbours wildlife. But it does take time to establish.
The relative merits can be summed up as follows:
1. Hedges
Plus points
- Aesthetically attractive
- Provide cover for wild-life
- Of limited value as support for climbing plants
Minus points
- Moderately expensive
- Slow to establish
- Generally less effective as support for climbing plants
- Provide shelter for pests and weeds
2. Fences
Plus points
- Quick to erect
- Relatively inexpensive
- Provide good support for
- climbing plants
Minus points
- Monotonous
- Relatively unstable in high winds
- Need periodic re-treatment
3. Walls
Plus points
- Very robust
- Attractive
- Provide excellent support for climbing plants
Minus points
- Fairly quick to erect
- Give rise to wind-eddies
- Costly to build
How useful is a wind-break in the garden?
Necessary, perhaps not. Desirable, very probably in almost all gardens.
The benefits of a wind-break will be seen in many, probably most gardens. Certainly in many coastal and upland gardens, some form of wind-break provides the only means of growing any other than the toughest of species, for the drying effect of the wind and consequent stunting of bud and shoot growth is seen all too dramatically in the sharply leaning trees and shrubs of exposed cliff-tops. The benefits of shelter from the wind can often be seen in meadows or cereal crops where the plants growing close to a hedge are usually appreciably taller and more lush than those in the centre of the field. For practical purposes, the choice of a wind-break is essentially the same as the choice of a boundary, although a totally impermeable barrier such as a wall may be somewhat counter-productive in giving rise to wind eddies on the leeward side.
What are the essentials of a minimal maintenance garden?
Grow plants that need little attention; avoid short-term subjects, especially annuals and use plenty or mulch to cover the soil and supporess weed growth.
Before planning your labour-saving garden, ask yourself, not only how much time you can spare throughout the season, but also how that available time is distributed between the days, weeks and months of the year. In a small garden, a quite appreciable percentage of the total can be given over to an attractively paved or gravelled courtyard. I don't believe however that there really is much choice, given a large garden and little time and labour, but to grass a very large proportion of it. Lawns may need mowing but they don't require anything approaching the attention of beds and borders or of vegetable plots. Moreover, the amount of mowing can be kept to a minimum by allowing the grass to grow long in as many areas as possible. Under fruit or ornamental trees, cutting can be restricted to two or three times per year with a power scythe, but even on a more conventionally dawned area, the limiting of close mowing to what are, in effect, little more than pathways in the grass can have a most appealing effect. Within unmown grass, daffodils and other bulbs can be planted in drifts to naturalise and provide attractive early season colour while minimal maintenance trees and shrubs (by which I mean those not in need of careful annual pruning) can be planted extensively. Those that grow fairly rapidly and supply good ground cover are especially valuable here and the enormous range of low growing conifers merit serious consideration. Consider also, the value of heathers for ground cover, year-round colour (in flower and foliage) and the minimum of attention apart from an annual clipping after flowering. If your soil is not sufficiently acid for the summer flowering species, remember that the winter-flowering Erica cinerea and darleyensis are lime tolerant. Don't rule out roses for attractive colour either; but not the modern large and cluster flowered varieties. Choose 'old fashioned' shrub roses many of which will grow very large, need the bare minimum of pruning and can, by careful choice of varieties, be selected to give bloom right through the season. Clothe walls and fences with shrubs and climbers that don't need much annual attention to pruning - some of the vigorous Clematis such as C. montana, although, ideally, needing some pruning after flowering, can, in practice, be allowed fairly free rein in unrestricted areas. Above all, avoid trying to raise plants yourself from seeds unless you know that you have time to prick them out, harden them off and then plant them out into the garden. Indeed, if time is really limited, avoid annual bedding plants altogether. Many people also make the mistake of thinking that the time taken up with hanging baskets and window boxes is that required for making them up at the beginning of the season and, in consequence, buy them ready-planted from the nearest garden centre. They soon learn however that the real time-consumer is the daily attention to watering throughout the summer and, as with vegetable gardens, greenhouses and tomatoes in growing bags, these will inevitably suffer if your time restriction is that of actually being away from the garden for days or weeks at a time. Finally, give thought to what is one of the most labour-intensive of all gardening operations, weeding. Be prepared, if necessary to use modern selective weed-killers but remember also the enormous advantages to be derived in weed suppression and in moisture retention from surface mulching . The initial outlay on such mulching materials as pulverised bark may seem high but the return will be enormous in time saved on weeding and watering.
How can I make my garden look bigger?
The easiest and simplest way is by obscuring the boundaries and sub-dividing the garden so you can't see allot at once.
1. Remember that you recognise a large area by your ability to see a long way. Avoid therefore planting large trees and shrubs in such a way that it is impossible to see further than a few metres, and impossible therefore to judge how much space lies beyond them.
2. Work to the maxim of filling as little as possible of your space with plants whilst giving the impression that there are many more than there are. One sure way of doing this is to keep the centre of the garden open and confine most of your planting to the peripheries.
3. Ensure, by using plants of appropriate size, that the real boundaries to your garden can't be seen and, most importantly, ensure that neighbouring gardens aren't apparent beyond your property.
4. If there is open space such as fields and woods beyond your garden, arrange your planting such that, although the actual boundary is obscured, the vista beyond appears as if it is merely an extension of your property.
5. Make use of curves in lawns, hedges and shrubberies to suggest the presence of something beyond what can actually be seen; try to convey a slight hint of mystery about the garden, that there is more to it, quite literally, than meets the eye.
What is the best way to disguise a vegetable plot when the garden is viewed from the house?
The most obvious approach to concealment of vegetables is to screen the whole of the vegetable growing area from the rest of the garden by a hedge, a fence or most attractively of all, by some form of climber-clad trellis or trained fruit trees. But never forget that vegetable gardens can be attractive in their own right - choose your crops carefully and make the ornamental therefore.
The main constraints to bear in mind are that any screen should really be evergreen or at least equally efficient in winter and summer (beech makes a good hedging subject), and that there must be sufficient space between the screen and the vegetables themselves to prevent the plot from being shaded and drained of nutrient. So make the screen as low as possible, consistent with the desired degree of concealment and, if space is limited, to use a fence or trellis which will not deplete nutrient and moisture in the way that a hedge will. The real hurdle to making a vegetable garden attractive is in thinking of vegetables en masse. Look at an individual lettuce, carrot, Chinese cabbage, beetroot or onion and see it as a foliage plant, to be used in small groups in borders with more conventional ornamentals. Look also at the those vegetables that are already grown for their flowers or fruit or that produce them incidentally during the course of the season - tomatoes, potatoes, globe artichokes, beans and peas, marrows and cucumbers. I would not pretend that growing vegetables in this way will match in either quality or quantity, those produced in a purpose managed vegetable garden, but a group of globe artichokes at the back of the herbaceous border, three or four plants of one of the really attractively flowered maincrop potato varieties and small groups of red lettuce, Chinese cabbage and carrots towards the front certainly brings a new dimension to vegetable growing. They will introduce novel foliage colours and patterns into your plantings, and they will certainly serve as a talking point among your visitors.
What is the best material for the construction of paths, patios and courtyards?
In order of my preference: brick and stone, gravel, stone chips chipped bark (for less formal areas), concrete.
Concrete: At its most unimaginative, concrete is a dismal material, providing unrelieved monotony when used for patios, although perhaps slightly more acceptable in restricted form on paths. Compared with many other materials, it is, nonetheless, cheap, especially when bought for 'home mixing'. The appearance can be improved somewhat by brushing the surface with a stiff broom while still wet, an operation that results in a less slippery surface too.
Gravel and stone chips: Available in many different grades and colours, those with angular particles tending to be more expensive and capable of being compacted when heavy rolled, whilst those of the 'pea gravel' type remain loose but give that appealing crunching sound when walked on. The loose types of gravel are among the cheapest materials but do need to be confined by raised edges to prevent them from spilling onto lawns. They are always attractive but are less practical where likely to be walked on with muddy boots. Remember nonetheless that many plants will grow happily in gravel which serves as a surface mulch and conserves moisture.
Wood: Wood can be used for paving and is less widely seen than it might be. Short lengths of hardwood trunks, laid vertically can produce an extremely pleasing appearance, a fact known to the gardeners of Japan for centuries. Unfortunately, such areas are considerably better when looked at than when walked on as they can be very slippery when wet. As edging, wood has perhaps a more widespread role, for lengths of tree trunk, sawn horizontally and laid with the flat face inwards, are very useful for confining gravel on paths. Old railway sleepers can be used similarly and are also valuable for building steps and raised beds. Large fragments of pulverised tree bark such as are used for mulching can also, in the right environment, also make an attractive and functional surface for paths.
Concrete slabs: Any slab-like or fragmented surface, be it for drive, path or patio, does have the considerable advantage that there will be gaps between the slabs in which mat-forming plants, tolerant of being trodden on, can be planted. Concrete slabs are the cheapest and most readily available and although they look pretty dreary when first laid, they can mellow surprisingly well. Lay them on a bed of compacted sand and don't cement between them - among the many delightful plants that will root happily within the cracks and tolerate being trodden on are thymes and some species of Dianthus such as D. neglectus.
Stone slabs: Much of what has been said about concrete applies equally to real stone; except for the price and the appearance. Slabs of genuine York stone have become prohibitively expensive but many of the artificial substitutes now available are excellent.
Brick: Whilst old bricks can be obtained fairly easily, they often require very considerable cleaning and are usually unsuitable for paving, tending to crumble after a year or two. Many modern hard-wearing bricks are unattractive but there are now excellent replicas that look wonderful. Bricks can be difficult to lay well, either onto sand or mortar but, done properly, in the right setting, and in a traditional pattern such as a herringbone, they can be magnificent,
Other materials: Proprietary blocks are now available in a vast range of colour, size and texture. Some simulate natural materials, others are unashamedly artificial. Most are expensive; many prohibitively so for all except small areas. Stone cobbles, granite setts and, in the right place, tiles, can all have a place in the garden. Always try to see a sample area laid before you embark on an adventure with any novel material however for the end result can be very different from the appearance of individual pieces.
What special considerations are needed when planning a garden in which small children will play?
Make children feel a part of the garden and not that they are allowed into it on sufferance. Give them a small area that they can call their own therefore, and encourage them to understand that plants will die if they are neglected, walked on or pulled up. A children's garden is doubly important if, for reasons of intrinsic value, delicacy or potential danger, the children must be educated not to stray into certain beds or borders.
No matter how keen a gardener and no matter how many plants he wants to cram into his allotted space, no garden is too small to prevent part of it from being used by the children as a play area. Sand pits can always be converted later into alpine troughs and tree houses are easily dismantled when outgrown. A courtyard, once it is has outlived its purpose as a cycle track or battlefield, can very quickly be changed into a pot-filled patio.
Two more general points should be made however. Children must be discouraged at all costs from eating any plants that they find in the garden; whilst a great many types of garden plant will cause stomach upsets if eaten in modest quantities, two plants, the yew and the laburnum, really are sufficiently poisonous and visually attractive to the young for them to warrant exclusion from any garden where young children will play. Secondly, a garden pool, attractive though it is, can be a death trap for the young. A small child can drown in a few inches of water and if an existing pool cannot readily be filled in or converted, it should be covered with strong netting.
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