I have recently moved into a new flat, which, amazingly for where I am, has both a front and a back garden. Both need quite a bit of work, and now the days are getting longer (and the fear is setting in of people seeing a garden designer's garden looking a mess) I am pondering the best way to go ahead. The front garden is top of my list, because it's what everyone sees, and in the colder months even I will see it more than the back garden. I like to work in the front room, looking out onto the street, and a bed full of weeds and leggy shrubs is not inspiring. Here is it looking particularly, almost impressively, tatty.
In designing my own garden I am faced with the dilemma that every small garden presents. I want something that looks smart, lush, and green all year, but that also has bursts of seasonal colour depending on the season. The difficulty is that there's just not enough space for both. Herbaceous perennials will die down in the winter to leave bare earth (swiftly followed by weeds), and evergreens will take up too much space to let the decorative plants do their thing. I don't want bedding plants and endless maintenance, and I don't want a practical but boring carpet of Euonymus fortunei. I am swiftly become my most difficult client.
However, I may have hit upon a solution. The windows overlooking this sorry sight have large sills just begging for window boxes. I am pondering a green bed full of native ferns to look good all year - they'll complement the existing plummy Acer and not demand too much of their owner, with the colour and seasonal interest provided by the window boxes. I can manage to change the planting in those 4ish times a year, surely.
So now I'm dreaming of what to put in the window boxes. Thompson and Morgan have some lovely non-climbing sweet peas, which I am imagining romantically trailing down the boxes, their scent seducing passers-by and the lovely soft colours looking good from inside and out.
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