John and I aren't done with new gardens at the new(ish) house at Struan Farm quite yet.
This past winter we extended the garden at the front by the drive, where I planted lots of flowers grown in the glasshouse, added a new little garden with a weeping silver birch by the gate that goes out to the paddock, planted a new garden at the far corner of the front lawn, and planted four feature trees on the lawn.
What we've had to do now is visualise the trees as mature in order to design the rest of the garden. Yep, that vision thing again. This is easier said than done, since the silk tree and the Gleditsia 'Sunburst' (Golden Honey Locust) in particular are both going to be quite large trees, but we think we've managed it.
We deployed garden hose to play with the shapes and sizes of four more gardens. We'll be extending the garden along the front edge of the drive just a bit more, putting in a new garden at the front of the house near the deck to provide some colour (with another weeping silver birch), and planting two new gardens to create a walkway leading both to the paddock gate and between two of the feature trees on the lawn.
As you can see above, we then let the grass grow in these areas to decide whether or not we liked the sizes and shapes. We did. So John has now sprayed these areas off. Once the grass dies we'll turn the soil over and start mulching and feeding. In winter I will plant.
We've also decided to plant a hedge of 100+ Griselinia littoralis on the other side of the driveway, along the fence, mirroring the one I planted two years ago. As previously reported, the line of weeds running up this side of the drive was bugging me, and a hedge is the solution. This should finish the landscaping looking up (or down) the drive, although we've still got work to do at the driveway entrance. John will need to line along the inside of the fence with chicken wire to stop the sheep from eating the new hedge, but the hedge will eventually cover all that so it won't show.
I'm resting up for winter!
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