Blank canvas plot
Conor Coyle
Posts: 8
Hi
My wife and I have recently moved, we sold our semi-detached town house in Belfast for a place in the sticks!
We are now custodians of a rural plot comprising of circa 3/4 acre of garden in mature partially wooded surroundings, it’s fair to say it’s a blank canvas.
Unfortunately during the flit all my past editions of gardeners' world were lost (probably dumped). What I wanted from them were the articles by Joe Swift where he typically carried out a case study, sketched out designs, and the part I really want is where he made plant recommendations. If anyone knows a source or compilation of these particular articles or a suitable alternative could you kindly let me know?
Many thanks
Conor
0
Posts
I would watch it for a year before you decide to do anything drastic, just to see what pops up, that way you can finalise designs before you do anything.
I'd second what treehugger says. You don't know what's in there yet.
Do you have any idea what year and month you're looking for, I have a load of back copies in my summerhouse.
That's part of the strategy "to watch it for a year", so I have a while to plan things out. The previous occupants planted a lot of photinia red robin shrubs which have taken over so part of the plan will be to thin these out, replant and create wider beds, which is why I wanted to flick through some of old Joe Swift designs in past issues.
Unfortunately I can’t be specific on the date as I lost over 3 years of magazines :-( …. Which makes me shudder as I’m a complete hoarder! Would you know of any decent books which are laid out in a similar way to the Joe Swift Designs? We are just looking for something your average novice gardener can draw inspiration from, certainly in terms of plant selection.
Thanks for the replies...
Both Joe and Carol Klein have published books on garden design. There is also an NGS book here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Gardens-National-Scheme/dp/0304355976 which has planting plans and plant suggestions under each heading (shade, dry, wet, etc).and which I've found useful because they refer to real gardens rather than only 'in theory' ones.
Have a google about - there are lots out there
Thanks, I've just ordered that one, another to add to my recent purchases. I did look into Joe's books but couldn't get anything similar to the GW articles I mentioned. I hadn't looked for Carol's books, looks like that may be my next purchase.