Garden style
It isn't that I don't like sweet disorder, but it has to be judiciously arranged.
-Vita Sackville-West (1892 - 1962)
And that quotation could stand as the marker of all that we try to do in our gardens. We like disorder, riotous colours, scents, borders spilling onto paths, we like laughter emerging from darkness studded by tiny candles, or kiddies shrieking with joy as they run through the sprinkler or splash in a pool, we love the happy almost-silence of our friends as they munch on a barbecue we’ve prepared lovingly to please them. We adore the sound of a summer afternoon as we recline in our lounger and browse through a novel with a chilled drink and an even more chilled-out lover nearby
But it all has to be judiciously arranged. Tatty borders look awful, shrieking children need to have towels to hand to dry their hair, a barbecue only works if the food and the seating, the drinks and the guests are all in the right place at the right time, and we can only recline and relax when we know we’ve got the rest of the setting right.
So this blog is about how we design and style our gardens, what influences us and how we can take the best from all the world and all its history and turn it into glorious opportunities to live in our green rooms. And it’s a chance to reveal and explore our personal style and experiment with what makes us happy and fulfilled. Or as another British gardener put it,
Don't underestimate the therapeutic value of gardening. It's the one area where we can all use our nascent creative talents to make a truly satisfying work of art. Every individual, with thought, patience and a large portion of help from nature, has it in them to create their own private paradise: truly a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.
Geoff Hamilton, 1997
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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