Asters, grasses and autumn tints are the main ingredients that brought my garden to its final crescendo this year. Following a long hot and merciless dry summer in which everything struggled including myself, autumn arrived with just a little rain and everything changed. Autumn tints were early, but many old clumps of Miscanthus grasses …
Winter has really arrived here in Amsterdam. It is cool and wet and I am glad that I have finished my replanting projects. Last week I weeded here and there, tidied away broken or flopped stems, and topped up the wood chip paths. The garden is quite tidy now if you can appreciate the look …
The border on the other side of this arch was designed to be green and restful in summer when the rest of the garden is doing its best to call for our attention. Last summer there were heleniums and rudbeckias here but in flower they were too distracting. This year greens in many tints dictate …
By early summer this border had lost the fresh colours of spring bulbs and matured into a gentle green cavern. Now in November, the fountains of ornamental grasses have brought movement to a space that sparkles in the season’s low-angled sunlight. In spring this area will be open and flat in anticipation of the dramatic changes …
One week of frosty weather seems to be all that our winter in Amsterdam is going to be this year. A year in which every weather record has been broken and ended unusually warm and wet. The forecasts suggest that I can start tidying the garden next week. I see that some of my neighbours …
Winter has started; it is warm and wet, calm and mellow, but with a hint of melancholy. Were the sun to shine the garden would sparkle, but when it doesn’t the line between order and chaos is finely drawn. From now on until the end of winter we tidy away anything that flops or hangs …
Colours are the spectacle in my autumn garden. They need sun to glow and when the wind blows the tall ornamental grasses start dancing to its tune. Much of my planting plans are to do with building the picture up to the final curtain call in autumn with the summer flowering perennials simply holding my hand …
My trial gardens in Amsterdam have teetered on the edge of chaos this year as a result of moving house. Weeds are under control and wayward growth ruthlessly chopped down, but I long for a clean sweep and the fresh growing season in 2015. Although colour is everywhere in the garden this autumn from bright …
In my previous post I celebrate the colour green; now others are challenging its supremacy. Here and there shrubs now rise above my perennial meadows bringing exciting new forms and contrasts to the looser plant material that surrounds them. Complementary plants form part of my perennial meadow planting schemes and are there to serve an …
Colours Gather Strength in the Perennial Meadows Garden Read More »
In Perennial Meadows The mild winter and spring in the Netherlands has triggered everything into growth. The overwhelming colour is green even though a lot is actually in flower. Green in its many shades is at the very heart of all garden planting. Celebrate it: