Soft Landscaping

Inspiration photo dump from our holiday to Andalusia. We travelled across the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountains and then up to Granada.

We went over for a friends wedding (which was the best) and then spent a few days after having a little holiday. I couldn’t help but take snaps of plants here there and everywhere…

It’s so refreshing to go abroad and see plants in a totally different environment to what we have here in the Uk. The contrasting textures in managed gardens were so beautiful and then the natural plant mixes found on hillsides were equally as striking!

Always good to have a breather, take your head out of work for a moment and remember why you get so excited about plants 😂🪴.

P.s spare a thought for Zoe and Jude who were having to put up with me stopping the car every 5 minutes on random mountain sides, looking at random messy shrubs and grasses!

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SWIPE to see a new project that I’m very proud of!

This garden was a challenge to design as it had to be designed around some large existing features, mainly the pool, pond, and obviously the strong architectural home. It is all pulled together with some new hard landscaping features, curved pathways and heaps of planting 🪴

This garden was only planted in the middle of this hot summer, so next year it is going to really burst into life!

The main features of the design are a curved cantilevered @millboard_live_life_outside deck, overhanging the revitalised pond. @johnstonelandscapes did an amazing job of this.

Masses of new planting, both front and back, help to ground the house into its surroundings.

The existing trees are now underplanted with a matrix of woodland edge plants!

There’s an edible meadow alongside the deck. Taking inspiration from the RHS Chelsea garden I co-designed with @sidhillecogardens

A favourite piece is a bespoke curved iroko bench that I built with my main man Joe, this wraps around a stunning fire pit and some precision radial setts that @johnstonelandscapes installed.

The driveway has been re-worked with large Fagus topiary and contemporary block planting of grasses. Then a shady overhang with picture frame windows into the house is underplanted with a shade loving matrix and tree ferns. I can’t wait to see this develop in time.

@johnstonelandscapes & I have worked together for a few years now, making the build such an enjoyable and collaborative process, and of course they tackled any on site challenges with ease. Thanks @johnstone_landscapes_jake 👌

📸 by @jacobgibbinsphoto

More to share soon

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My favourite late summer colour plants in this scheme are:
Echinacea ‘Pretty Parasols’
Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’
Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba’
Scabiosa columbaria
Obviously the Salvia too 😂

This is one of my recently planted gardens on the edge of Dartmoor.

The clients wanted colour and that’s what they’ve got! Perennial colour through the seasons with some evergreen shrubs and topiary to keep the scheme strong through winter.

The stonework and hard landscaping provides such good structure to show off the planting. Can’t wait to see it develop next year.

Some people hate yellow flowers for some reason…
What do you think? (I love them 👌)

Plants from @foliumandflosplants
Photos by @jacobgibbinsphoto

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