Park Crescent’s ‘Garden in the Clouds’
The Garden in the Clouds, in Park Crescent, is a place for children to dream, to engage with plants and to experience nature.
Bringing New Zealand to Islington
This new planting scheme for a garden in Islington is a tale of two hemispheres, on two counts. First, although it is based in North London, it incorporates a range of plants native to New Zealand, where the owners spent their childhood. Second, it also has two distinct environments: one side faces south, it is sunny and warm, with well-drained soil, while the other faces north, is in the shade, and the soil remains reliably moist.
Potager Colbert: rebirth of a lost kitchen garden
When a digger nearly fell over the high retaining wall overlooking the overgrown dell just down from the main front garden, the new owners of Chateau Colbert realised there could be more to the long, unkempt site on the western side of the estate.
Mickael Vincent, head gardener at the Potager Colbert, who is taking me around the garden on a bright morning in late August, says earlier plans showed there had been a kitchen garden here, but that before that incident in 2012, there were few signs left of its former glory.
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North London modernist garden
A garden for a young professional couple in North London, who commute into the city every day and enjoy their outdoor space but have little time to look after it.
The Savill garden: redefining the winter frontier
January 2020 – Winter was once the final frontier for garden folks. The cold season just meant leafless shrubs, perennials cut back to the ground, and muddy borders. Of course you could always count on holly, yew and various conifers for greenery and structure. The odd Christmas rose would bring a bit of colour until the first snowdrops popped up, along with winter aconites, followed by crocuses heralding the imminence of spring and a return to floriferous times. But mostly, in winter, gardens went into hibernation.
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Marks Hall: bright barks and ancient trees
February 2019 — A sharp breeze sweeps across the hill, ruffling the silver-green eucalyptus grove in the distance. It forcefully combs the grasses and buffers the young monkey-puzzle trees that are dotted around the meadow. The air is crisp and the sky is clear. Apart from the hissing of the wind in the branches, there is barely a sound. Gondwanaland, on the western fringe of the Marks Hall estate, feels a bit otherworldly.
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Anglesey Abbey: kingdom of stems and scents
February 2019 — Search for ‘Betula jacquemontii’ on the internet and the chances are the first page of results will include several pictures of the white birch grove at Anglesey Abbey. It’s a testament to the garden design team that, despite the internet’s ability to warp our perception and unrealistically heighten our expectations, this should still be a striking sight when you eventually see it in real life. Continue reading “Anglesey Abbey: kingdom of stems and scents”
Last days of autumn in the Japanese garden
March 2019 – In less than a month, it will be hanami, cherry-blossom time, at Europe’s largest Japanese garden. My last visit to the oriental park at Maulévrier, near Cholet, in France’s Anjou region, dates back to mid-November, on the last day of their autumn season. In the woodland, the nearly bare branches of deciduous trees are holding on to the last gasps of fieriness. Continue reading “Last days of autumn in the Japanese garden”
Martha Spurrier: The everyday usefulness of human rights laws
Liberty director Martha Spurrier talks to Jean-Yves Gilg about how the Human Rights Act has changed English law for the better Continue reading “Martha Spurrier: The everyday usefulness of human rights laws”
Lord Neuberger: Bringing the common law out of the shadows
The outgoing Supreme Court president talks to Jean-Yves Gilg about pushing boundaries and greater openness – Continue reading “Lord Neuberger: Bringing the common law out of the shadows”
GILG GARDEN DESIGN 