greencube garden and landscape design, UK

GREEN WALLS This was before the popularity swept across the Uk and Europe led by Patrick Blanc and his vertical planting and now of course there are so many companies providing vertical wall installations. But back in 2006 they were not on the market and so  I had the vertical steel trays made by a local forge to my specification, I filled them with compost mixed with vermiculite and I planted the succulents 8 weeks before the Chelsea Flower Show. They rooted in and were able to be installed into our gold medal winning garden.  They were my ' living art panels' made up with a mixture of Sempervivums of different varieties supplied by Kernock Plants, it took me 3 days to plant up and were laid horizontally for 7 weeks until I was happy they had rooted in.  They required very little watering as sempervivums can live on a teaspoon of water. Its great to see the image and comment in the book. Here's a few photos of the living art panels ...

Greencube's workload: Normally August is quiet and the pace of new enquiries slow down and its a great time to catch up and get on top of things. But we are still receiving new garden design enquiries and being inundated with new work. I'm definitely not grumbling but enjoying the pace and its great having Harriet on board to help out which has improved turnaround times for our clients. We are working on some very interesting projects currently in Essex and Kent, including a garden with a 10 metre climb from front to back and a lovely contemporary garden in Chelsfield. What's looking good in greencube's garden? Well a riot of Crocosmia and Echinacea, now my husband would say that the composition doesn't work in this photograph but I love it. It reminds me of a dress in my wardrobe that I'm not brave enough to wear. A riot of colour!!! Cynara looks great a huge flower has appeared and more on the way, this is a big plant and requires a big space. ...

I spent last Friday morning with my client in Folkestone, we worked together: weeding, trimming, dead heading, feeding and I took some photos once we finished. Our clients have totally embraced their garden that we designed and planted last year and they tend to it regularly to ensure it looks great, we had a great time working through and sat back and enjoyed the views at the end! It's so important to regularly maintain your garden to gain maximum benefit and as you can see, a year on, this garden is maturing nicely. The herbaceous mix of Helennium's, Coropsis, Anemone, Diascia, Persicaria, Erigeron and Micanthus grass look stunning! A new variety of Hydrangea 'Pink Annabelle' and some rich coloured Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty'. The only poor display was the Malus, totally wiped out by the wind and cold rain, blowing off all the flowers in the spring and so this year has no fruits, what a shame.. but the Nandina hedge looks great. The view from the main ...

We are now looking after our Tunbridge Wells Garden that we designed and planted last year. Harriet is visiting weekly to keep it looking great. The Hydrangea Annabelle and Penstemon's with Rosa 'American Pillar' scrambling up the posts look amazing. and one of my favourite little Geranium's -  'Patricia' is doing its job well.

We re-visited a garden designed by us  greencube today. Built last year and planted by us in the Spring of 2011. We have now been asked back to design the front garden. We took an opportunity to have a look at the plants to see how well they have established. We love the meadow and orchard, what a great success, a real dreamy space, buzzing with insect and butterfly activity. Trying to capture the wonder of a meadow is difficult, here I have photographed the mown path with orchard and meadow on one side and perennial and ornamental grass bank on the other, the white fizz in the backround is Leucanthemum 'Angel' and yellow flower in the foreground is Anthemis 'Sauce Hollandaise' which has now past its best but I think still looks great! Here a mixed perennial border with Stipa tenuissima and Miscanthus sinensis 'Adiago'  The Leucanthemum 'Angel' up close.

When I travel into London on the train, I often count how many trampolines I see in the gardens that the railway line travels by, just to pass the time. It always surprises me !!! We carry out designs for lots of family gardens and are often asked to include the obligatory TRAMPOLINE. For low cost options we position them within borders, sometimes behind hedges, which I like as you can see the children jumping up and down but don't see the ugly trampoline, sometimes with secret paths which children love. Another alternative is to sink the trampoline and here we have installed a trampoline designed in amongst rubber bark mulch and interplanted with Fatsia japonica and Ferns.

We've outgrown our current office and needed more space, to get more organised, feel inspired and enjoy lots of natural light within a garden setting to encourage creativity. We are a week away from moving in and we can't wait..... ON THE OUTSIDE I have converted what was a very ' poorly'  double garage with single skin brick work, rotten window, a brick pier that was nearly falling down and old asbestos sheet roof and given it a total makeover. I designed the materials, windows and layout and we had a great carpenter and general builders courtesy of Bashford and Ball Builders Ltd and a zinc roofing company - Bell Zinc Ltd who bent the zinc panels into an amazing piece of sculptural roofing, a very skilled job and it looks great with the windows. and of course my husband who painted the internal plasterwork and laid the wooden floor. thank you x Our new studio is almost ready, clad in western red cedar with cedar details around grey windows and doors, 3 frame...