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

Not the most long-lived of systems but wood ‘gabions’ certainly blend into the background scenery fast. In the short term, these untreated Oak framed, branch lined and rush filled supports are keeping back the natural slide of soil that occurs year on year. Soil has filled many of them so a lot of nearby tree roots have taken advantage of this.

In one location alongside the Vegetable Garden, the Wood ‘gabions’ have been left clear of soil where the structures are built alongside tree roots and within the drip area. This is to ensure the tree roots get air and the tree remains healthy.

I’ll be probably working with regular gabions of galvanised wire with stone-fill when we start work on ensuring the top road remains level. These work well and function for years as riverside protection and by roads cut with resultant steep sides. I have also noticed an article in a recent Architectural Mag. showing the use of these gabions as a wrap around wall/ wind insulation system and in one gardening program, flexible ‘rope’ light was interwoven through the stones of a set of gabions that formed garden surround seating.

~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant