Yesterday I was tending the new grasses border planted at my clients’ garden – this one features Miscanthus sinensis, Stipa gigantea, Stipa tennuissima and Anemanthele lessoniana, interplanted with Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, Acanthus spinosa, Phlomis fruticosa and russelinia and Hemerocallis, as well as Tulip ‘Ballerina’ for spring – a fiery border dominated by yellows and oranges and then fading into the straw and tawny shades of grasses in Autumn through to silvery Winter.  And this is how it looked yesterday – above and below.

Today I have been working on a client’s garden that was very neglected.  It looked like this on arrival (although even this isn’t quite before I’d started, because this is after I tied in all the trees properly to their stakes, from which they had all parted company in infancy to the detriment of their growing shape, alas)

And now things are getting better, we have some order out of the weeds and chaos, and big plans for new plantings this autumn.

Today is looks like this, with weeds cleared, lawn edged and plants given some tender loving care.

Today has been a good day gardening for clients who are architects.  The brief for their plantings was – make it contemporary, modern, with plenty of evergreen and seasonal successional interest, with a touch of the exotic without being tender.  So we planted lots of phormiums, acanthus, astelia, euphorbia and mahonia as repeated elements and the results are looking good.  All the plantings are really settling in and getting nice and companionable.

And  a little reminder of what it was like before!

A nice transformation!

Hydrangeas and hoverflies – a great combination!

Apologies for being away from my blog since April – it has once again been a very busy gardening year.  Sadly, I really don’t have much time for writing extensively these days, so am going to try and post more frequently, but just a few quick highlights I’m afraid.

Went back to Hidcote for the first time in about twenty years – it was much better than I remembered it – especially loved this Hydrangea aspera captured in the background here by my husband.

Autumn is really arriving now, so this is what I have achieved this week so far…one client’s new planting filling out nicely…

And another garden I look after is coming together now, some order and a lawn out of former chaos…

And in my own garden things are getting nice and mellow and autumnal….

Happy gardening….