Rodmarton Manor Gardens

I was impressed with how this garden looked.  Last time we were here was 2014 and since then the son has moved in and I assume taken over the garden and house maintenance.  It was thriving.  I recall some areas looking tired but not any more.  Most notable, the alpine troughs.  

We ran into Simon, now retired and 90.

Planting a Small Garden Tightly

This garden has three different faces or attitudes and all packed into a small 10 x 20 foot space.   The five round Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' really hold the mess together and help differentiate the three views.

Arts and Crafts Garden

I planted this garden in 2013.  I was going for a cottage garden that would be equitable to the architecture.   I've been back regularly 2 or 3 times a year.  Today I sheared the pittosporums globes, weeded and added a few new recruits.  We'll see who survives.

Noe Valley Cottage Garden 3 or 4th year.

Today I passed by a garden I created 3 of 4 years ago. I stopped to see how it faired this very rainy winter for us. That's not a Halloween prop but a clump of miscanthus boldly plant next to the generously wide steps to the front door of this Arts and Crafts inspired building and garden.   Numerous gardens we saw in England inspired this planting.  Great Dixter keeps coming to mind.  I do stake it and bind the grass clump into a column tied off with twine.  

Planted tightly with perennials and grass-like plants grounded with five balls of clipped pittosporum.   The front door is framed with sentinel thujas in large terra cotta containers. And three clumps of choisya ternata including a pair of mock oranges in terra containers flanking the front door.

Arts & Crafts Front Entry Garden - One Year Maintenance Visit

One year after planting, today I detailed this garden: staking, weeding, shearing and deadheading. This is my first garden design to incorporate those plants and ideas from my trip to England in 2012. This small front bed was a blank slate. The building's Arts & Crafts style is the theme for this planting.

Noe Valley Entry Garden

An Arts & Crafts inspired front entry-way planted in October 2013, ravished by gopher for 3 months, replanted in March. Here's what it looks like eight months after planting.

Achillea millefolium 'Moonshine', Senecio mandraliscae, Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' spheres, Geranium 'Rozanne', Lavandula (English), Erigeron karvinskianus and Verbena bonariensis