greencube garden and landscape design, UK

We have just completed a new garden in Sevenoaks - a beautiful old coach house built originally in 1836, it now has a wonderful front garden with obelisks, old style coach house brick platforms with oversized pots bursting at the seems with daffodils and tulips. Slate paving and an arbour. A tasteful mix of old and new linking back to its heritage then jumping forward to the 21st century. Garden designed, planted and project managed by greencube, hardscape by Langdale Landscapes. Gemma now maintains this garden monthly. The resin bound drive is just about to be applied the last of the hard landscaping jobs. I will return to take further photos during the spring and summer to hopefully capture this wonderful garden through the seasons.

Busy busy as always. Tulips photographed in our Hadlow garden this week. It was a bit hot and a bit bright but these stunning lily flowering tulips are all open with great colour.  They sit within a courtyard enclosure within a much larger garden, surrounded by white rendered walls. We were a little surprised by the 25 degree heat this week, Gemma had her shorts on. I have been emailing our clients to remind them to keep watering. In my own garden I potted up a large grey stone pot with a mix of bulbs.  Now looking glorious, we use this double orange tulip quite a bit. Gemma has been reaping the rewards of her hard work this week, maintaining gardens in Tunbridge Wells, New Barn, Hadlow and Langton Green all of which have many tulips now in flower, we purchased 9,400 bulbs last autumn. Meanwhile my veg patch is doing well, here are my new salad leaves just started. Amelanchier lemarkii is just in flower, we use this small tree as a spe...

It's been another very busy week at greencube. I attended the SGD (society of garden designers) Spring Conference on Saturday, rubbing shoulders with my peers and fellow industry colleagues, a great day that focused on the use of ornamental grasses with presentations from growers, designers and plant hunters.  On sunday I completed a 14 mile walk to raise funds for Marsden Hospital - Cancer Charity - the Marsden March. Thank you if you sponsored me, in memory of gorgeous Alex. If you haven't please follow the link, it's not too late. https://www.justgiving.com/remember/151634/Alex-Sales I then foolishly booked planting a courtyard garden on the Monday in Reigate,  ideally I should have booked a day in the office to rest my achy legs. But the show must go on and so must the planting. Luckily Gemma was booked to help and we had it all planted up by 3pm. I have completed a garden design in Sevenoaks this week, a small skinny rear garden for a georgian house that is un...

Exciting Stuff - Hot off the press....... A new book written and compiled by Ian Hodgson to celebrate the work of the Society of Garden Designers - championing excellence in garden design was released last week. 'Great Garden Design'  ISBN 978-0-7112-3573-1 showcases the work of many designers and includes six greencube gardens in: Platt, Kent (my own garden) Twickenham, London Borough Green, Kent Chislehurst, Kent Tunbridge Wells, Kent and our show garden RHS Hampton Court Small Garden 2010 - Gold medal and best small garden We are very proud of our inclusion and will be sending our clients details of the book so they can share our joy and show their friends and family. Ian's summary of book: 'This book presents the best garden designs of the last ten years from more than 50 top garden designers. It offers design solutions for every situation, every area, all tastes and budgets, and any size of garden. It draws on the talents of celebrated d...

 in Faversham, Sevenoaks, Leigh, Speldhurst, Brentwood, Erith, Petham and Reigate We are just about to tender for a lovely garden in Faversham. A mix of slate with stone resin frame and decking with duck egg accent colours added, a vegetable plot and 3 zones to chill out and enjoy the sunshine. 3d modelling exports: We have just tendered for a garden in Reigate that we designed late last year. A garden that has had a very large extension with open plan kitchen/family room and large windows facing the rear garden. The new terrace will have porcelain tiles running from kitchen out to the garden terrace and will be retained by a wonderful textural sandstone wall. The continuous porcelain floor from the kitchen to the terrace will create a smooth transition and when the glass doors are rolled back it will be hard to define indoors from out. Work has just started on a garden in Sevenoaks with pond and ragstone wall being built by Creative Landscapes and project m...

Greencube loves a challenge! Here's what this garden looked like last year... We nearly frightened off the landscapers with our proposals...... When visiting this garden last year, the clients were refurbishing the house and required some help and inspiration to sort out the garden. The garden falls from top to bottom 5.2 metres over a very short distance of just under 30 metres. greencube have designed a practical space, adding veneers of gabions filled with local kent ragstone and green oak sleepers to hold back and mask the bad taste rendered walls, without stripping the whole garden out and making use of three practical levels down to the lower area.  We have turned the steps and created resting platforms, 2 decks for socialising and the children will have a slide to land down on the bottom level onto the astro turf playing area with the option of steps if you are not keen to slide down. We have also incorporated a planted green bank, taking inspiration from Thames Bar...

Sometimes its good to get away and look at nature close up. Sometimes I take inspiration for our garden designs from nature: the patterns, textures, colours or an abstract shape..... I borrowed my husbands macro lens to take these photos on a trip to New Jersey, looking at what was on offer on a short walk through a meadow near the coast in Cape May. The meadow offered some wonderful diverse flora and fauna and the light was good. I'm not the best at holding the camera steady but managed to get a few almost focused images. Berries, seeds, seed pods, autumn leaves, flowers and monarch butterflies. I plan to visit lots of gardens this spring and summer 2015 and practise my macro photography, I may try the monopod to help with steadying the camera.