Little & Large

 

Did you ever have those exam questions, ‘Contrast & compare….’ This is what I thought on Sunday when I travelled many miles, well a couple, to visit 2 Yellow Book Gardens. Have I told you that being nosy in other people’s gardens is one of my favourite occupations on a sunny Sunday? Well it is. Even better on one such visit was when we had to walk through the house to get to the garden – double whammy! It got even better when instead of tea we got an extremely generous slug of Pimms. But I digress slightly.

So, this weekend’s garden no.1 was a huge house, very close to Wimbledon Common. The garden had been designed 2 years ago by Andrew Wilson, RHS Chief Assessor among other things apparently. It was a large garden to match the large house with a sweep of beautiful grass & areas of planting divided by yew hedges (bought & planted by the metre). A lovely pond which according to my companion could do with some fish, expensive tasteful paving & matching planters.

My feeling about this garden was a beautiful design which was let down by the planting. The latter may have suffered due to the weather & the grasses will no doubt look wonderful later but to me it lacked texture & anything with a bit of wow factor – overall rather soulless.

Garden 2 couldn’t be much different. A small patch backing onto a railway line at the other side of Wimbledon. The outside doesn’t look promising dominated by neighbouring blocks of council flats.

Inside the gate is a beautifully planted little front garden, down the side of the house… …to an eclectic plant-filled oasis. It would have been a complete surprise if I hadn’t been there twice before!

 

Here is a train!The garden is totally private, lots of seating areas despite its size, nooks & crannies abound, fantastic pots full of shade lovers, particularly beautiful were the Japanese painted ferns. The white wisteria was just finishing but must have been glorious.

Do you get the idea that I much preferred this one? Well done, you are correct. Part of it must be the fact that I too have a tiny garden which is crammed full of plants & which needs lots of trimming to keep it under some sort of vague control. But this garden also spoke volumes about the ‘designer'/gardener’. She is a set designer which I am sure is some help in her vision, but it is full of personality, down to the storage area at the back…

Whatever the type of garden, I really do admire anyone who opens theirs for the picky public to paw over. I always like to think that mine would be good enough………if I could be bothered…….if MrB wouldn’t refuse….. if there was more of interest….

The poppy at the top is mine!