I am going to put together a few of my favourite parts of various gardens I have built over my years, and post about them on a weekly basis where possible. Some will be very big, and sometimes not achievable in everyday gardens, and some of them will be nice and simple peace’s that can be achieved easily. I would also like to say all pictures are my own, and are of our own jobs that we have built since I became self employed, or are of builds that I have worked on, whilst employed by my previous company.
Let’s start with a nice and simple, but effective raised bed. Most of the raised beds we build are made out of new railway sleepers. These can be cut and placed on top of each other like Lego blocks, but I’d like show you these more formal beds today. Unfortunately the company that made these aren’t about any more, but an evening on eBay, amazon or google would find something very similar. Available in hardwood or softwood, these flat pack raised beds were incredibly effective, and easy to install. They were erected around a very heavy obelisk we also installed. It made a very usable, and pretty part of the garden.
Next up is the brick archway. Any college educated brick layer will tell you that these are easy. I’ve done a few now, and when it’s time to remove the former, it is always a bit of a nail biting process. Apart from exaggerating your confidence at that point, they aren’t too difficult. They always make a nice entrance point into the garden, just like this one does.
3rd on the list is wild flower turf. As annoying as this is to lay, I cannot stress how good of a product this is. Beautiful colour for 10 of the 12 months per year. Fantastic for wild life, incredibly low maintenance, and is very good for areas that can usually be a pain. For example steep banks and shady areas are prime candidates for this. The only maintenance needed is to strim it back once a year, and maybe give it a water in the deaths of a dry summer. These pictures are from a show garden we built a few years back, with a bench nestling into the flowers.
4th and 5th on the list is a little bit extravagant. We built this Chelsea garden back in 2011. Probably one of the most ambitious gardens I’ve worked on. Built for the Monica royal family, this is the most prestigious builds we’ve done. Just a couple of features in this awesome garden were these. A glass panel water feature. Water ran down the sheet of glass, was collected in a sump at the bottom, and then recirculated. This sat underneath the “lavender balcony”. Once we finished the construction of the balcony, the plantsmen and women came in and crammed as many lavenders as was humanly possible into the area. It was one hell of an experience stood up there on show day. The scent was unreal, and it was extremely odd being in such a tranquil and calm seating area, looking down onto the hustle and bustle of the show.
If you are wondering, the timber used for this show garden was eucalyptus. Incredibly rare in the UK. It was sponsored for the show garden by a company looking at importing the product into the UK, and unfortunately Mr Titchmarsh mistook it for Teak. This is understandable to be honest, but the sponsor wasn’t to pleased by the mistake.
Any questions feel free to ask. I will be doing a full post on the Monaco garden in a few weeks time, in case you were about to ask about that.
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