It might work. It has taken a while but the living base sections for a series of outdoor lights have now grown with regular pruning and these will be ‘topped’ by half globe translucent all-weatherproof shades.
Each one of these living topiary pillars scattered around the HoBB Garden site will be supporting small ivy-covered domes to form down-lighters for gentle night illumination. (see diag.)
I know the effect I want to see as the light (cold light) shines through the ivy domes and highlights the topiary bases. Once I visualised it and got it down onto paper the rest was in the hands of ‘time’. The bases have been 5 years growing but could have been planted ‘fresh’ by bringing new plants to site but I may have been tempted to arrange these in a straight line or with some symmetry. By adapting the ‘nature’ that was existent, I have allowed the outcome of previous plants men to be incorporated into my designs.
I have never been the sort of Garden designer that turns up with a big skip at the front door, scrapes the garden flat and ditches the past ready to lay out fresh imported ‘everything’s’. There are few areas that demand such a ‘total’ swipe-out – most gardens have some fine specimens and very useful plants even when the new design being followed calls for 100% change.
The trick is to work with nature and compound the best – don’t ask me how confident I am that this more traditional Feng-Shui approach will be the norm in the future because too few gardeners that appear on television take this approach.
I recall one panel of garden experts on a radio programme giving advice about total re-designs and all but one suggested effectively destroying existing plants and buying in new. This is frequently the typical westernised view of even gardens designed to incorporate Feng-Shui principals.
And if you are wondering who the wonderful gardener was that said she always tries to re-home plants and she couldn’t even think about destroying the life of a garden or pot plant, it was Pippa Greenwood.
Yo Pippa! Respect! Plants are for life, not just for Christmas.
~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant