July in the Garden - Lilybud Gardens by Design: Brighton Garden Designer

Welcome to the July edition of Fiveways Gardens.

July is a month for thinking about filling the inevitable gaps that will be emerging, and sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labour and musing on what you might do differently next year. With this in mind, I thought I'd share some inspiration I've gained in visiting various gardens over the past few weeks. Most recent of these was a very rainy day last week visiting Great Dixter in Northiam, Kent. Inspite of having to duck out of the way of some seriously heavy showers, I really enjoyed it. It's packed with such dynamic planting it really is a garden that warrants visiting at different times of the year. Some of you are no doubt familiar with the writings and gardening style of the late Christopher Lloyd. I was given a book of the letters exchanged between him and his lifelong friend and wonderful gardener, Beth Chatto. To be honest and to my shame, a gardening book with no amazing colour photos initially left me a bit cold. However, the quality of the writing kept me engaged (available in our local library.) It took an hour and half to get to Dixter. It's close to Bodiam Castle, not that far from Sissinghurst or Merriments garden with its lovely nursery. To me, it's a garden that screams, be brave, be bold, dare to be different, be open to change and forget all about low maintenance. It looks lush and verdant and mixes familiar cottage garden flowers with interesting and unusual exotics. It's a lesson in the value of establishing ground cover, and creating a matrix of planting dense enough to keep annual weeds from seeding too freely.

The various meadows were looking lovely, which moves me nicely on to another inspiring garden I saw recently. Whilst in London for the annual secret squares and gardens weekend, I stayed with friends who have a small (5m by 15m) garden attached to a Victorian terrace in Greenwich. They've created a lovely plant-lovers wildlife haven garden, complete with tiny but very happy pond and a small but fab looking meadow. I'd read that meadows are notoriously difficult to establish in small spaces and as this one is in its first season, I will keep an eye on its establishment over the next few years. From their kitchen /diner it looked a treat though. A good mix of grasses and meadow flowers about 3m diameter with a mown outer ring, creating the definition that says, "it's okay, it's supposed to look like this." Really lovely and probably an excellent solution for those of you with slopes to garden and not really into mowing as much as needed to create a fine lawn.

Finally, it was my pleasure to be part of a hidden gardens tour of Brighton organised by The Garden House, (Warleigh Road). We were given guided tours of 3 very different, but equally inspiring gardens in Hove, 2 of which had been designed by local designers with the 3rd having been lovingly created over the past 25 years by the owner. You can check out forthcoming garden tours and courses at their website www.gardenhousebrighton.co.uk (tel. 702840) or go along to the Garden House Open day coming up on 19th July and meet Bridgette and Deborah, who run the Garden House. All in all, very inspiring.

Happy gardening til next time,

Lisa

For an initial consultation call Lisa on 01273 500407 or 07957 751218 or email her at info@lilybud.co.uk