garden with woodland backcloth – still planting

An update on the progress at this garden (1st summer click). Today the azaleas and grasses are due to arrive to fill the border on the right  by the house. These will be set out in curves so that they can be cloud clipped to form a soft billowing organic form in the years to come. The contractors have some students on loan from a college in the Auvergne who are studying for a HND in Horticulture. Julie is in the distance neatly raking the hoggin paths in the French style.

The winter sun is catching this part of the garden today. The dark mulch has gone down around the box mounds, grasses and infill perennials. Come early summer, all this planting will have filled out to become a tapestry of green, white, blue with a touch of soft yellow.

Nathan and  Cecile are cleaning down the paths before a final layer of gravel is laid as a top coat. We ‘re waiting for the plant delivery but jobs can be completed anyway. The azaleas will go in the bed shown below. In contrast to the other planting, the client, quite rightly, preferred strong bright reds and pinks to bring some drama to the scene.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Aureocaulis’  from Architectural Plants as a buffer to the slope  into the woodland. I was slightly hesitant about the choice but, in fact, they look great especially when the light catches the stems.

From the terrace under the vine looking south . . .

. . and down to the lower garden and on to the woodland with stream and ponds.

The wine of Love is music,
And the feast of Love is song:
And when Love sits down to the banquet,
Love sits long:

Sits long and arises drunken,
But not with the feast and the wine;
He reeleth with his own heart,
That great, rich Vine.   The Vine  James Thompson