“How well the skillful gard’ner drew (read more...)
Regular readers of our blogs may have noticed a slight penchant for using hedgerow plants within a gardened context – and, they’d be right! Such understated and familiar rural plants offer a wonderful counterpoint to a more structured geometric plan. There is also a similarity to the Japanese philosophy of ‘elevating the ordinary’ here, plus a touch of nostalgia for... (read more...)
Garden designers don’t work in isolation. Our points of reference are not purely landscape orientated – if they were, our output might become rather inward looking. We are constantly open to cross-pollination and influenced by all sorts of phenomena be they environmental, aesthetic, architectural, nostalgic, political, pragmatic, poetic, musical or literary. I’m particularly inspired by the visual arts. (read more...)
It’s impossible not to get a little bit caught up in World Cup fever even if, like me, you can’t tell one end of a football pitch from the other. (read more...)
I'm passionate about foxgloves, in the right location they naturalise readily, they are easy to cultivate, the resulting varieties are rich in colour, stature and texture – I like the sophisticated rusty brown shades. These elegant plants have history, beauty, variety, a suspicion of danger and, being very attractive to bumblebees, serve a practical environmental purpose – what is not... (read more...)
A good and important question, and whilst I’m probably on a hiding to nothing in trying to define a house style – since there are so many variables and one is never standing still – it is an interesting exercise none-the-less. Here goes! (read more...)
I fell in love with cow parsley as a boy. I knew it as a common weed and, running amok in our garden woodland, it was considered anything but precious. My brother and I would cut linking pathways through it – an early exploration into garden design? We used hazel sticks as machetes to feel like Amazonian explorers, or bare-chested,... (read more...)
My first visit to RHS Chelsea Flower Show was as a boy being dragged, kicking and screaming, by my mum. I thought it would be full of the “paisley-skirted ladies who lunch” brigade. Turns out I enjoyed it in all its diversity, the wacky and bizarre end of things, of course! But I was also struck by the elegant, contemporary... (read more...)
Elderflower champagne is the original and guaranteed garden party show-stopper and the secret to a good elderflower champagne is all in the timing. (read more...)
Read how our photographer Laura Burt approached this project & her analysis of her three favourite shots. (read more...)
If you want a home in the UK’s most unaffordable city, you’ll have to be creative. Cherry Maslen tells how this family did it. (read more...)
Our practice has been involved in specifying a number of ‘green roofs’ over recent years, usually sedum due to roof load-bearing constraints. However, our most recent and enjoyable roof project has been when we designed our eco-house in Oxford. Planning restrictions meant that the entire kitchen would have a flat roof with a large skylight as would the garden office,... (read more...)
The discussion of formal vs informal, of humanised landscape vs nature untrammelled can be a hotly debated topic in the world of garden design. A wide variety of garden styles and tastes is the spice of life, but to suggest any designer can ‘recreate nature’ is, in our opinion, a non-starter. (read more...)
There are probably few things more exciting (in the world of garden design) than the arrival to site of mature trees ready for planting. They add a structure, maturity and instant three-dimensionality to a scheme that otherwise may take 5 -15 years to reach its design intent. (read more...)
