Tag Archives: Garden designers
Walled gardens – feeding the household
These days we call in at the grocers or supermarket to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. Few of us are self-sufficient in producing food, unless you’ve a generous garden or access to an allotment. How did those big country houses of old cope with feeding dozens of people when they’d nowhere to shop? […]
Verey – a veritable gardener
In 1970 Rosemary Verey (1918-2001) opened her garden at Barnsley House to the public through the National Gardens Scheme. The scheme began in 1927 to support district nurses. For a small fee (and a cake and a cup of tea), visitors are given access to private gardens, usually a few days in the summer, and […]
Urban gardens – from allotments to public parks
Was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Mesopotamia (3500BC) the world’s first urban garden? Since its location is unknown, then its purpose is purely speculation. But there is evidence that Mesopotamian citadels had small farms, gardens and irrigation systems within their walls. The cultivation of gardens within cities and urban areas is ancient and well […]
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens and Vita Sackville-West
Sissinghurst is probably one of the most famous gardens in England and forever linked with the prolific writer Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. How did it all begin? Sissinghurst in Kent started out life as a Saxon pig farm – Saxonhurst. Hurst means woodland in Saxon. During Tudor times a fine manor house […]
Mazes – a garden puzzle
“You keep taking the first turning on the right. We’ll just walk around for ten minutes and then go and get some lunch.” These are the words of Harris in Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat as he leads a group of tourists into Hampton Court Maze and promptly gets them lost for […]
Landscape gardens – vandalism or greatness?
I touched on Landscape gardens with my post on Capability Brown. He wasn’t the only designer who had a habit of obliterating existing formal gardens and replacing them with picturesque landscapes. During the 18th century, the era of neoclassical architecture, estates were symbols of wealth and status. The grander, the better. The scale required new […]
Mr Brown – a visionary landscaper who saw capability
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is a name that sticks. Until I researched this post, I was under the impression that the ‘capability’ nickname referred to his capable abilities. It actually comes from his describing landscapes as having ‘great capabilities’. The man had vision. These days, he might be considered a wrecker – he didn’t simply plant […]
Arboretum – exclusively for the trees
It’s that time of year again when my blog bursts back into life after months of neglect. It’s the annual A to Z Blogging Challenge, a worldwide event that encourages bloggers to post daily using a letter of the alphabet as their prompt. Themes are optional, but as in previous years, I like to keep […]
The Quiet Writer 