Day 131 - Farewell my lovely

I only had one further job to do, which I carried out with a cage on my leg, in considerable discomfort. The organisation must have valued my skills, because they continued to pay me at half pay for two and a half years, as I had been informed by my consultant that I would make a full recovery. This was destined to prove optimistic.

However, as predicted, the planning permission for the new building was turned down, as a result of some perfectly reasonable objections from neighbours, and some examples of rampant nimbyism, much as would be expected from the kind of development which surrounded the property. The upshot of this was that a more compact huge building would have to be designed, and that it would have to be further away from the next-door bungalow. This meant placing it on top of my lovely new landscape. Of course, I was very pissed off, and berated everyone I could find to berate, protesting about my lovely design, my lovely plants, and at the same time saying that I could draw up plans just as good for wherever the bloody bulding ended up, just so long as they lifted my plants and stored them safely till I got better. Accordingly, I was asked to come in and supervise landscape contractors with the lifting.

They wanted to cut down my tall bamboos, in much the same way as you would prune any other large plant during transplantation, to prevent water loss through transpiration. They clearly didn't understand the way bamboos grew. If you cut down a bamboo stem, it doesn't regrow from the cut. It waits till the following year to put out new shoots from ground level. The pruned stem never regrows. If they cut them down, all the advantage of their bulk would be lost, and the landscaping, when I did get it started, would be with short, truncated, ugly plants instead of an instant rustling, swaying in the breeze effect. I told the landscaper I didn't want them cut down, and then went home. On my next visit, I discovered that he had gone to my 'temporary' replacements and told them the bamboos needed to be cut down, and they had agreed to do it. By the time I was able to stop them, half the plants had been ruined for my purposes. Clearly my continuing employment no longer commanded respect.

I have never been back, and never will.

The Office Manager did take some low-definition photographs of how the scheme was looking just before the plants were removed. They hadn't been maintained to the standards I would have achieved, but in some respects they were beginning to show their potential. Sadly, however, no one had really attended to this area in my absence, and none of the trees had been watered. About fifty percent of my specimen trees were now no more than dead sticks attached to stakes.

The bamboos were beginning to thicken up though, and it was now possible to imagine how they would provide an effective screen -

They were starting to spread by throwing up long shoots from roots a metre away from the main plant. This would require constant maintenance to keep them within their prescribed bounds. I doubt whether my replacements would have coped with this work -

The screen of lower-growing bamboos which would close off the view at the end of the croquet lawn was becoming quite dense, although further spread was going to be required, or perhaps supplementary plants -

But the effect that I was really looking for, the grasses and bamboos billowing and rustling in the breeze was well on the way to proving itself. There would be sounds there in their shelter that would delight a musician's ear, I was sure, and already the main house was disappearing from view -

And still the vista down the length over the Echinaceas was preserved -

The whole thing was still not finished, of course, and never would be, but it was pleasing to see how it was beginning to become what I had envisaged -

I suppose in the long run, though, this was a garden which didn't really deserve the level of professionalism I wanted to give it. It was never a major horticultural attraction through its history. It was a play area for its owners, and more a way of satisfying their quest for privacy than a garden of any importance. Perhaps it was only right that it should descend after my custodianship back into its cottage garden state. That is what it always had been, albeit a large one. My temerity had taken it to better places for a short while, and I was very proud of what I had been able to bring it to. But being a professional means more than getting paid for your work, in my book. It means you have technique, vision and love. A good garden can be easily ruined by a bad gardener. But conversely, a bad garden can rise above itself in the best hands. That is what I hope I gave to all my gardens.

In some ways I am sad to have completed this report, in others I am relieved. I had intended to write a conclusion, detailing all the things which a gardener needs to make his output stand above the crowd. I have already given the details through the text. I am not sure I want to summarise any further.

This is farewell, until a new subject grabs me in the future. And don't forget that the story you have just read continues in the Kindle books listed at the top of the page. Nil-by-Mouth is the first. It is much funnier than this has been. And better written. This report has been led by its pictures, by a visual force. My memoir is primarily a story and the words count for more.

Thank you for sticking with me through the repetitive parts. It was important for me to capture the whole story before I forgot any more of it. I suppose one day I could edit it for readability and make a book out of it. The material is there now. I just need to recoup the energy.

In the future I will continue to write, and you will find my work on the website or on my two facebook pages or twitter. If I find another big subject I may construct a book here on blogspot, as I have now done five times already. Stick around. There's plenty more to come. But for now I have a large drawing to complete as a well-earned break from four months of daily writing.

Thank you for accompanying me through my musings.

Day 130 - Reversion to type

I was released from hospital a month after my accident, with an external fixator on my leg -

The x-rays showed that I had done considerable damage to myself -

It was likely that I would be off work for a while. Accordingly, my employers had taken on contractors to cover my work. Two days a week, they told me, just to keep things ticking over. What they failed to understand was that they were grossly misrepresenting the numbers. They had taken on two people two days a week, which is four man-days. Apparently there were also two people doing my mowing which brings the count up to six days, and there was a third resident helper who was supposed to keep up with the watering in this very dry garden. In all, they needed to replace my 35 hours with seven or eight days work, just to keep the place 'ticking over', let alone coping with all the development and restoration work I had been doing.

A friend of mine came to visit very soon after I got home. He was the volunteer photographer who had helped us five jobs before, and he and his wife went out to visit my new workplace. He brought back pictures which made me very sad. Barely over a month after my enforced absence, I could already discern deterioration. My new borders probably still looked fine to the untrained eye, but problems were already beginning to creep in. The plants were growing away nicely, but I didn't like the working practices a bit, with debris on the lawn and bits and pieces of equipment all over the place. Gardeners working on their hands and knees in the borders too. My pet hate. You can't cover enough ground on your knees to be able to keep a five-acre garden up to standard. You need a professional efficient approach. It's not a hobby, it is an art.

And it may not be evident from that picture, but the Rose Borders were full of weeds. Remember how calm and uniform they had looked, with just the Verbenas and Roses? Well here you can see next to the paving to the right of the chair, in full flower, a Linaria, which although pretty enough, I always treated as a weed because of its tendency to proliferate. And sure enough, in just a few weeks it had. It was all through the Rose Beds, taller than the Roses, and threatening to take over, obscuring the whole point of the planting. It was degenerating with considerable rapidity into a poorly-maintained cottage garden -

This is how it should have looked -

The kitchen garden was no less of a disappointment to me, as my replacements had completely failed to recognise the advantage of growing in short rows, and had reverted to miserable tradition, having planted the beds along their lengths instead of across the width, forcing them to trample all over the soil to do any work -

I am sure it looks all right to most viewers, but I could not believe that in no more than five weeks my lovely garden should have so readily have reverted to type. To me it looked like it now needed restoration all over again.

And worst of all, I discovered that they had ceased composting the waste and were having it carted off in skips. Presumably they didn't have time! If they did the weeding standing up like bipeds, they might have found the time. 

Day 129 - Fickle chance

We have now arrived at the last folder of photographs I ever took of this place, and they show my glorious new design, as developed as it ever got. Six days later I was in hospital after a life-changing accident.

I am pleased to be able to report that the following photographs now do begin to give an idea of how this area of the garden was intended to work, although at the moment it was still very see-through. In maturity, each area would be shielded from the view of all the others, apart from the deliberate through view from end to end of the plot over the lower-growing herbaceous central strip.


Many of the beds had been dug in their entirety and mulched with fresh material, the circular enclosures were now clearly visible -

The top end of the feature was done. I still had to finish the far end and put in the next two circular lawns, but I had completed more than half of the work already in a relatively short space of time. I was optimistic, buoyant and at the top of my game -

The next shot probably shows better than any the potential of the new scheme. It shows the circle at the top which I hoped eventually would become a water feature, but which for now was planted with a central tree surrounded by a cluster of Pittosporum 'Tom Thumb'. Looking straight down the central axis from here, the Echinaceas can be seen, in a number of different varieties, over which it would be possible to look from end to end, from one focal point to the other. At the same time, the degree to which the main path wanders from side to side is also clearly visible. This would have the effect of retarding visitors' progress through the garden, and encouraging contemplation. I expected those who worked there to hate it, as it would impede their journey to the supermarket to buy their lunch, but then, I wasn't doing it for them, and I had provided a straight path down the side for those in a hurry -

Just two more shots will complete the picture -

and, from halfway down -

On 19th May, six days later, on my way home from a shopping expedition to buy ingredients for a party we were holding to celebrate our earlier wedding, on a bright, dry, sunny afternoon, I inexplicably had an accident which shattered my leg and destroyed my career. If you want to know more about this, you have to read my Kindle Trilogy 'Cancel the Cup Cakes', beginning with Volume 1, Nil-by-Mouth. There is a link at the top of the blog.

Day 128 - Wedding Cake

Right in the middle of a big soft landscaping project, I decided to multitask. I bought a wrought-iron centrepiece for the kitchen garden, and had to erect and plant it. It was a fairly straightforward distraction, but time-consuming. It had to be wire-brushed to remove rust, and then painted black. I had to construct a base for it to sit on, and I had to plant it up.

It was going in the centrepiece where the previous summer I had had annual flowers and a wigwam of bamboo canes for height. My new structure would give the height in future -

I chose this picture carefully. I did set it up with a spirit level, but as is the way with gardens, with the rest of the surroundings being wonky, many of my photos make it look like the leaning tower of Pisa. Leaning tower of peas. Damn, to late to use that idea as a visual joke!

As it was going to be a permanent feature, I now felt it appropriate to grow long-term climbing plants up it, and in the true spirit of kitchen gardening, I planted two vigorous soft fruits, a Loganberry and a Tayberry, to tie in on the outside. Inside I placed a number of Sweet Peas to clamber up the metalwork, as I felt the scent would be a fine thing when I eventually completed the path leading into the centre of the structure and set a bench in there.

And just one more pic for luck -

I didn't turn my back on the rest of the job for too long, however, and by the very next day, 22nd April, I was wandering round with my camera keeping a check on other developments. The Wedding Cake Tree with the Violas beneath had been tidied for weeds and heavily mulched. This reminds me that a major event had taken place in my private life the previous September, when my partner and I had got married back in the Scottish Borders where we had been so happy. Stan had been Best Man. He carried the rings, but as he couldn't make a speech, that honour fell to the friend I had made on our Apple Day over a 'Guess the weight of the Pumpkin' competition. Henceforth he styled himself 'Second Best Dog' which is a status not accorded to many.

The ground cover effect was no longer as lush, but they would soon spread and seed around. The great advantage was the suppression of volunteer weeds, and the colour of the fresh mulch would soon weather down to a nice dark brown.

The other feature which was looking good at this time was my squares of bulbs in the orchard. Three photos in quick succession will show how they were coming on. first a longer view -

Then one of the Fritillaries -

And finally, Anemone blanda -

Oh, go on, then, one more shot, from 13th May -

I suppose one of the reasons why there aren't too many photographs between mid April and mid-May might have something to do with the landscaping work which I was continuing with throughout. Tomorrow....

Day 127 - So much going on

One day later, according to the dates on my folders, I had made considerable progress with my landscaping. I had taken delivery of the trees, mostly bare-root, and I was under pressure to get them in the ground as it was getting late for planting. 12th March.

I had forgotten to mention that part of the plan was not only to create tall screens throughout the scheme, but I also wanted to leave a channel of lower plants in a straight axis down the middle, so there would be views down the entire length of the area as you crossed from side to side on the wandering path. I intended to use large drifts of Echinaceas to achieve this, in various colours, as almost the only floral interest in the whole scheme. In order for this to work, each end of the plan required a focal point, and to this end I chose trees with spectacular bark effects. A clump of three Snakebark Maples can be seen on the left, planted to achieve this.

By now, I had also removed the stumps of the old Leylandii hedge to the left, which had once separated the two plots of land, and I had started digging out the new beds which would give shape to the paths -

Stan is having a look, wondering if it will ever end, before going off to lie on some nice warm compost.

But let's not get carried away with landscaping. I also had the rest of the garden to keep on top of, and we find that a further three days down the line I was enjoying the product of some earlier work - the bulbs in the orchard -

Whatever angle you viewed them from, it was nice and simple, but beautiful -

and a closer view wasn't bad either -

This only got better three weeks later as more of them started to open, and by 4th April it looked more like this -

We mustn't let ourselves get too distracted by this, though, as there was still a lot of work to be done on the landscaping project, and I kept plugging away at it. Even now, I get tense wondering how I managed to combine it all with the sowing of the vegetable garden and the maintenance of all the other borders, as well as supervising building works and attending the interminable meetings I was required to be present at. Anyway, progress was made, despite all this -

Here it can be seen that even though I hadn't dug out all the proposed beds yet, because I knew where they would be after marking out the edges, I was able to plant all the trees and bamboos as they arrived, in individual planting holes for the time being, pending more time to dig out the turf in between. I had deliberately bought quite large bamboos from a wholesale supplier and they made quite an instant statement. They also cost thousands of pounds. And look at that lovely pile of fresh wood-chip mulch I had made to finish off the surface of the new beds. Top right. see it?

Looking down from the top, many of the bamboos can be seen, as can the trees, now all in place, and beautifully staked, If I may say so. I'd forgotten how good I was at this -

By 13th April, we had Fritillaries in the orchard, so I have photographic evidence that I was still keeping an eye on it all -

16th April and some more of the bamboo beds had been dug out -

The whole thing was starting to shape up, the meandering path can be seen more clearly now on the left. The three trees at the top were matched by three trees at the far end, and there would be a strand of lower planting leading down the middle between one clump and the other.

And from the far end, it was pleasing to see just how full it all looked already -

But for tomorrow, I have to drag myself away from this, and show what else I was doing at the same time, and I must say, I surprise myself by finding that it wasn't any straightforward basic maintenance, but another new innovation for the garden.

Day 126 - Hiding the Queen Mary

I no longer have the drawings I produced for the new landscaping, which is a pity, because they show the layout of the beds better than any of the photographs I have to show you. I shall instead try to describe it to you.

The new building was supposed to be on the site of the house next door, the one in which I had lived when I first started the job. This was very close to the bungalow beyond, which was one of the reasons why I was sceptical about getting it past planning, particularly as it was the size of the Queen Mary. It would be accessed through the gate to the the house, which would be demolished, and its front entrance would point to the single-track road that was our access. The remainder of the building would then lead back most of the depth of the garden, leaving a narrow strip separating it from the neighbours in the bungalow, and a slightly larger area behind with views out on to my planned seaside garden, beyond which was a whole estate of bungalows which I would need to screen the monster from. Or screen from the monster.

The other and largest area to be landscaped was the piece which lay where the old fruit cage had stood, and which separated the Main House, the historic part of the property where the artists had lived, from the new edifice. My priorities were to create leisure space, creative space, links between the two contrasting themes (the old and the new buildings) and also a screen to hide the one from the other. It seemed that we had given priority to ensuring that our historic property was not infringed upon by the vast modern building we were proposing, but hadn't taken into account that the people next door might have a similar wish not to have our enormous ship overlooking them or shading out their garden.

The screen/link I was charged with creating was to extend almost the entire depth of the garden from North to South from the corner of the tennis court to the back gate, at which point I would need to link it into the seaside garden which lay to the east behind the building.

The scheme I came up with involved a single central grass path which snaked in quite tight curves from one side of the area to the other, and from which four separate circular grassed enclosures were placed. These were in two pairs diagonally opposite each other along the length of the path, and the whole arrangement was delineated by borders of thickly planted tall bamboos, which eventually, with other plantings of grasses and foliage plants would screen each area from all the others. The job of hiding the new building from the old would be achieved partly by the bamboos which would grow to five or six metres tall, and partly by carefully-spaced trees which would reach out above the scheme, softening the profile of the building. These would be chosen for their bark effect, and the bamboos would be maintained to show off their stem colour by removing lower leaves, but allowing the upper and perimeter parts to look lush and do their job screening one area from another.

The first photograph I have to show, characteristically marked out by my slots of removed turf, shows a small circle surrounded by a path. This path in fact would connect to a new path down the side of the tennis court to link the old house with the new, and would continue across to the front entrance of the archive in its new site. By turning right from this, and following the circular path, you would be led to the meandering path between the contemplative circular lawns down to the far end, where, off to the left, you would find the seaside garden and leisure areas. The initial circle you see in the foreground would be planted with a tree and small Pittosporums for the time being, but I had hopes of turning it into a spectacular water feature to contribute to the theme of sound, this being a garden planned for composers.

You can see that as well as my other winter work, I had also demolished the old tool shed and redistributed its contents into the garage at the main house, which involved a lot of work creating racking for all the tools, etc. The string shows the central axis required, which was quite different from the original orientation which had no real focus. On removing the hedge to the left, the ground plan of the two neighbouring houses would join into one, and this new repositioning would work.

On the left of the picture you can see the cut-out for the path leading to the front entrance of the new archive, and only slightly beyond it the beginnings of the serpentine path which would lead visitors through the maze of bamboo. It is clear from this that the path would wander from side to side in quite a dramatic way, thus deliberately slowing down passage through the scheme, to encourage contemplation. These were not shallow curves. The first two circular enclosed lawns were already marked out at this stage too, although they are not obvious from the photo. One was just off the path in front of the small shed, which would disappear in time, and be moved to the compost area to hold my necessary composting tools, mainly a fork and a shovel. The other was over to the right, diagonally opposite the first, across the meandering path. The other two 'lawns of deep thought' would be further down beyond the shed, set up similarly to the first two. I had also marked them on the ground.

The proximity to the white bungalow next door is clear in the next picture -

Imagine a new structure that would stand on the original site of the brick house, though slightly wider and several times longer, and approaching twice the height. How naive was it to expect that to get through planning? Nevertheless, I plugged on with my work, because that was what I had been asked to do.

Day 125 - Beautiful compost. Proud of my piles.

My photographs have now reached the next March, at which time not much is growing, but there is plenty of evidence of how busy I have been. Apart from general pruning, cutting back herbaceous plants, weeding and so on, I had been conscientiously mulching the borders with my home-produced wood-chip based mulch, produced by shredding my own prunings and stockpiling them to weather. I had a lot of material. When I say I mulched the borders, I mean all of them. I repeat, I had a lot of material, and as I had no front loader on my ride-on mower, all of this was turned and shifted with bare arms and a shovel. There follow some pictures to prove I am not exaggerating. First the orchard, where all the trees have been mulched, including the Walnut in the foreground. I always try to plant a Walnut wherever I go. As they take a while to fruit and 350 years to reach timber size, not so many people bother with them any more. They should be more valued. Same goes for Mulberries.

By this time some of the bulbs between the trees were beginning to show -

Next the borders behind the library. I didn't even leave out this hidden space -

Then the Rose Terrace and the associated borders leading away from it -

From another angle this area had its winter character, which still hadn't fully developed. There was quite a lot of herbaceous content which disappears in the dormant season, but there were also shrubby items and trees which take a bit longer to bulk up and make their impact. For example, at the far end of the next picture, slightly to the left, there are some sticks with a label attached. Unless the label is still intact, I doubt whether anybody knows to this day that this is an Emmenopterys henryi. That is if it has survived -

My beloved Mulberry and surrounding borders got the treatment too -

as did the borders around the croquet lawn -

All this had been achieved from my massive compost heaps in the shelter of the pines at the far end of the tennis court lawn. It was a tidy area, considering it was made of waste material. In the next photo, you can see what I had left after all my mulching, so it is clear that I had made a lot of material through the preceding summer with composting the herbaceous waste and turning it through eight months- and five acres-worth of grass clippings, as well as chipping and shredding everything woody that I created in the pruning of overgrown shrubs and trees. In the picture you will see behind the pine trunk three smaller piles of leaf mould, kept separate by age, the three year-old one being all but used up in the planting holes for all the new borders. To the right of the tree trunk is a heap of composted grass and herbaceous waste, and in the foreground is the pile of weathered chippings I was using as a mulch -

My compost heaps don't look like everybody's. There are no weeds growing in them. This was not a neglected area where stuff was dumped, as it had been when I arrived there. This was the life-blood of the garden. The last thing I needed was to be transporting weed seeds back to the garden in the compost. It is an absolute rule, that if you want a good garden you have to practice good hygiene in all aspects of your work. Weeding should be prioritised to ensure that no weeds are ever allowed to seed, whether in the borders or in the compost area. So many times I have seen gardens maintained by people who have a round which they rigorously follow, regardless of the circumstances. There is no point in spending loads of time perfecting one border in your garden in all its aspects, such as weeding, pruning etc. if at the same time other areas are seeding like crazy, causing even more work for the future. You need to hit what is most damaging before it does its worst. So my compost was always immaculate. That is how I managed to get so much work done. I wasn't constantly chasing things that had got away from me. It beats me why, but far too many gardeners don't seem to grasp this.

The kitchen garden in winter isn't exciting to look at. By March, most of last year's debris should have been removed and the ground cleared for this year's. Some people may have started sowing already, but I was never in a hurry. The greed for early crops often leads to a duplication of work later to fill in for losses, and as I wasn't trying to feed anybody, I saw no urgency for sowing and planting, as long as I had a fine display and product during the summer season, when most of our visitors came. So this was it as the spring started -

Note that for this year I had made some changes. The furthest four beds had been mulched whilst the others had not. This was because they now held permanent plantings for cut flower. The vegetable beds would not receive a chipped mulch, but would be manured with nutritious compost from the other heap as required.

After all my composting was finished I was able to start on the work landscaping the areas around the proposed new building. Although the photographs of the first stages of this are in the same folder as the above illustrations, I intend to treat them as separate, and tell you about it tomorrow.

Day 124 - My great ambition

Now my pictorial record surprises me. My next folder of photos is dated four months later. I can well imagine that I had been too busy to take any during what remained of the summer. I would have been flat out harvesting through that period, and there was a lot of involvement in planning meetings. It may also have been around this time that I took on responsibility for the building maintenance contracts, typically adding to my own stress, rather than letting somebody else carry the burden. I was so paranoid about the damaging effect of building works on my lovely garden that I felt the only way to control it was to run it myself. This was probably true, but it stripped much of the pleasure from the working day.

Looking at the photographs I have, it would seem that I just couldn't resist getting the camera out when the Pyracantha produced its berries. that was too good an opportunity to miss. The first shot shows why I do not consider myself to be a photographer. I repeatedly manage to snap my own shadow to the detriment of the finished image -

I wonder who was with me there?

I could have cropped it, to eradicate the shadows, but it looks good from a distance and I never mind showing my shortcomings. A close-up wasn't bad though. And weren't those hedges getting better all the time?

The two other pictures taken on the same day are of the mirage caused by the wavy mowing where the old fruit cage had been. Now at the stage I had envisaged, and in the longer autumn shadows, this area had the appearance of an undulating seascape, which was precisely the justification I gave for doing this in the first place, with this being a coastal garden -

In fact, that was a perfectly level lawn which now had taken on a completely different character through fancy mowing -

But that was it for that area. Its days were numbered.

The organisation desperately needed a stable environment for the archive, which was the largest of any composer anywhere, and had put in a planning application for a new building on the site of the house next door, which can be seen on the left of the above photo. That was the reason I had already cut down the Leylandii hedge in front of the building, leaving stumps for leverage when I came to grub them out. My lovely wavy mowing would be sacrificed to the landscaping for the new building.

It was clear to me, if not to everyone else, that the scale of the proposed structure was not going to get past either the planners or the bungalow-land nimbyism of the neighbours, but nevertheless, we were planning on the basis of the success of the application. The local authority planners were muttering about conservation plans and getting involved in the plantings, possibly dictating which trees we would have to use and removing all flexibility from the landscaping. We were already maintaining native woodland at the edge of the property, but my ideas for laying out the area round the new building had a different thrust and involved paying homage to the seaside location, and the property's musical heritage.

We had discussions around this, and I produced mood boards to explain my thinking, and the management team accepted my plans. My justification was largely based on photographs from the internet showing the kind of style I envisaged for the finished garden. It would consist of two areas, Firstly, on the far side of the building there would be a seaside garden, possibly with a Mediterranean flavour, but at any rate influenced by photographs such as this, giving a free access amongst the plants, quite unlike any of the traditional areas of the main garden -

The other part of the scheme was intended to act as an inspiration to visiting musicians and composers, and was planned to create sounds within the natural environment, as well as providing seclusion for contemplation. It was to utilise bamboos and grasses to blow and rustle in the constant east coast breeze, and to provide nesting places for birds which would bring their song to the enclosures. It would involve a serpentine path between small discrete circles of lawn, shielded from one another, eventually discharging in the vicinity of the front doors of the building and hopefully giving an effect like this -

The bamboos would be pruned carefully to reveal their stems and leaves would be removed to accentuate the colours, as in the next two pictures -

Strong foliage contrasts would be placed within the circular rooms -

There would be no fussy planting, but everything would be in large drifts of single varieties -

Smaller grasses would be used amongst the bamboos to give further contrast to the whole -

Throughout the scheme, trees would be planted which made strong statements with their bark. These would include Snakebark Maples, Cork Oak, Prunus serrula, Plane trees and Birches such as Betula albosinensis var. septentrionalis -

Although there would be limited numbers of bright flowers, the effect would nevertheless be lush and inviting, even exuberant -

Yet, looking out from the building, I hoped eventually to be able to create a feeling of tranquillity -

There was an urgency to all of this, though, as I would need to make much of the scheme part of the garden before the planners arrived and started dictating something much less creative. I was given the go-ahead to start my landscaping, which I had begun by the following March. I undertook the work with huge enthusiasm, as I was totally convinced of the statement I was trying to make. However, I also approached it with some trepidation, as I was absolutely certain that we would not be granted permission for the gigantic edifice for which an application had been submitted. That's all a tale for another day.