We have a very exciting urban garden in the making and this sculptural fire from Glamm Fire will be the cherry on the cake.
Stunning in design, beautifully finished and exquisitely detailed in Corten steel, the fire also uses Bioethanol, which is 100% green.
We cannot wait to see this in place.
Better known for his fashion and still life photography, Phillippe Jarrigeon fell in love with the gardens at Château de Marqueyssac whilst location scouting and captured these enchanting images for Pin Up magazine.
Insanely surreal and appealing to the child, adult and mad hatter in all of us.
Wondering down a mown pathway, with the dappled shade from many trees dancing on either side, I gaze ahead to see the reflections on a lake drawing me on.
I breathe in and turn right and step into a grove of wild cherry, Prunus avium, planted in a large square formation grid. The design, so regimented amongst the naturalistic planting, gives this grove so much sense of place. All around me tall pale tree trunks reach up to the sky, they look like pillars. The canopies above flutter and play with the light. It feels powerful and emotive, I am standing in natures church, happily worshipping its beauty.
I have been visiting Bryan’s ground for four years, each year I am delighted by its design and amazed at how quickly the garden is maturing in the rich loam of Herefordshire.
The house, owned by David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell, lies near Presteigne on the border between England and Wales and was built between 1911 and 1913. The gardens are home to 20 garden rooms, a rose garden, topiary, box pareterres, follies, long hedges, a ha-ha, a potager, a lake, a river and a thriving arboretum with long mown paths. It is a dream come true garden.
The planting is wonderful, sometimes colour themed, often very formal, at times very wild.
At the entrance, by the house, beautiful fruit trees line the scallop edged canal, they are underplanted with squares of 4ft-high Iris sibirica. If you come between mid May and early June you are greeted by thousands of these mass planted Iris in dazzling blue full bloom.
Full of anticipation, one flows from one garden room to the next, drawn on by the next peek of an urn, a gap in the hedges, or a jaunty building. It never disappoints, there is something special round every corner and down every path. The carefully curated vistas anchor the garden to the surrounding landscape and make you stop, gaze and wonder how you might be able to make it so you could stay here forever.
Bryan’s Ground, Stapleton (Nr Presteigne), Herefordshire (01544 260001;www.bryansground.co.uk). It will open again next spring to the public.
David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell are editors of Hortus magazine, a collection of essays and notes on horticulture. http://www.hortus.co.uk/
The grid, Bryan’s Ground © Cat Howard
Mown pathways, Bryan’s Ground © Cat Howard
The canal, Bryan’s Ground © Cat Howard
The house at Bryan’s Ground © Cat Howard
The wonderful planting, Bryan’s Ground © Cat Howard
For this Kew garden, which overlooks the River Thames, we designed some lovely powder coated steel planters in dove grey, which work on two levels. These were filled with large Buxus balls and grasses.
The bins are now contained in a bespoke bin store, the front bed was planted with new green and purple planting and the window boxes with smart clipped Buxus balls.
Sculpture can be so important in an outdoor space; it creates focus, intensifies the sense of place and relates to the vegetation, light and the seasonality of a garden.
We also love it when sculptures are used as physical punctuation; at the end of a long view, they become a full stop, or a comma as they lead onto another space or another sculpture.
We love the work of Charlotte Mayer, a Goldsmiths graduate. One of her pieces ‘The Thornflower’ commemorates the death of her grandmother in Treblinka at the hands of the Nazis, but at the same time represents the hope of reconciliation. Her work has wonderful movement and would enchant and enhance the right space.
More information on Charlotte can be found on The Garden Gallery’s website, amongst many other talented artists.
This gallery contains 5 photos.
This week we have started searching out inspiration for a client in Primrose Hill. This client is a good friend whose garden is overlooked by wonderful towering London Plane trees, they give the whole garden a lovely verdant feel and their movement is pleasing. However, whilst appreciating their beauty, she finds herself a bit disappointed at the shade they leave her …
After some time away watering and tending to my seedling daughter, I am again designing, writing and back in my garden.
We have not rested an our laurels, however – we have continued to search out inspiration; we have completed several projects and we have spent a lot of time planning the future for Cat Howard studios.
Beautiful meadow planting – happy summer everyone
This metal and sand garden by London based artist Zadok Ben David, is made up of 12,000 cut steel flowers & plants. The botanical specimens make up a monochrome field, hence the title Blackfield. When you walk round the piece the flowers take on glorious painted technicolour.
Ben David has made some other wonderful installations including Sunny Moon and his wonderful human figure Leftovers, we love them for their potential use in an outdoor space.
Blackfield
Sunny Moon
Leftovers
Check out these planters by Kornegay Design. Sleek designs, colours and finishes that would look sensational planted with some architectural grasses or small trees.
This morning I woke up with lines of this wonderful poetry tugging at me. I read it every couple of months, finding something new and lovely every time. As with many of Pablo Nerudas poems, it is beautiful, romantic and entrenched in nature.
Ode to the woman in her garden – By Pablo Neruda (Translated from Spanish)
Yes, I knew that your hands were
the flowering clove, the lily
silvered:
that you had something to do
with the dirt,
with the earth’s flourishing . . .
but
when
I saw you dig down, dig down,
to push aside the stones
and finger the roots,
I knew right then,
my farmer girl,
that not just your hands
but your heart
were of the earth,
that you
were making
things
there of your own,
touching
damp
doors
through which
circulate
the
seeds.
So, then,
from one plant
just
planted
to the next,
your face
stained
with a kiss
from the mud,
you came
and went
flourishing,
you went,
and from your hand
the astrolomeria’s
stalk
raised its lonely elegance,
the jasmine
dressed
your snowy brow
with stars of scent and mist.
All
grew from you,
entering
the earth,
and turning
to immediate
green light,
foliage and might.
You made contact with
your seeds,
my love,
my red-faced garden girl:
your hand
familiared
the ground
and thus right then was
the growing made clear.
Love, so too
did your watery
hand,
your earthy heart,
give
fertility
and force to my songs.
You touch
my heart
as I sleep,
and the trees bloom
from my dream.
I wake up, I open my eyes,
and you’ve planted
in me
shadowed stars
that rise
with my song.
That’s how it is, garden girl:
our love
is
of this earth:
your mouth is the plant of life, the petals of it,
while my heart works the roots.
Translation by Terence Clarke
Cat Howard Blog 