Spring Details In My Black and White Garden
I don't share enough of our black and white garden here - strange considering I'm almost more invested in it than our home renovations!After days of on-off torrential rain, there came a break on Friday. Enough to see the light pick up the intense new-green in the leaves and watch beads of water balance precariously on petals. Quick off the mark to grab my camera, I shot some details before the weather changed direction again.
I didn't quite finish painting the fences last year, so I've been cracking on at any available opportunity. They were originally a scruffy green so I chose black to make them almost disappear. I've used Ronseal's Duck's Back and 5L tins are about £10 from B&Q at the moment. The black gives the plants a more contemporary backdrop as they change throughout the year. Far more striking, don't you think?The current layout is very typical of a terraced garden - think long stretch of lawn and borders around the edge. Nothing wrong with that, but you know me, I like to mix it up. Eventually, I'm envisaging a mostly white garden with a mix of prairie and tropical planting. A total oxymoron, I know, but I just love a lush mix of large scale, architectural foliage mixed in with delicate flowers and wispy grasses. I'm hugely inspired by Beth Chatto's dry garden which was created entirely from drought loving plants. Really worth a visit. I also really fell in love with the LAND collaboration at London Design Week last year. Ultimately, the plan is to reduce the amount of lawn, get in some hard landscaping and break up the linear, traditional layout.We've no plans for any major groundwork this year as the hallway is literally sucking the lives out of us but I'd love to know if you'd like to see more from our garden later in the year? Are you taking on any major gardening projects?
