Delos re-imagined: where the past meets the future

June 2021 – Until last month, the mention of Delos would have taken me back to my childhood history book, with pictures of the avenue of lions illustrating accounts of the Delian league’s flawed aspirations to peace. Now, another image superimposes itself over the old one: that of the Priest’s House, in Sissinghurst, overlooking Dan Pearson’s new magical interpretation of Vita Sackville-West’s and Harold Nicolson’s original vision for their Delos garden.

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Bringing New Zealand to Islington

The Mediterranean garden, in Kew, is home to numerous New Zealand plants
The Mediterranean garden, Kew, home to numerous New Zealand plants

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.

 

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Sustainable front garden with space for people and car

‘Space for people’ front garden

Sustainable front garden with space for people and car
Sustainable front garden with space for people and car

A low-maintenance gravel garden with simple lines for the front of an angular 1950s brick house located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Generous planting softens boundaries, increases kerb appeal, and turns a space that was once a mere access route into one where the owners and their visitors might linger.

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Potager Colbert: rebirth of a lost kitchen garden

Playfulness at Potager Colbert: an old coffee pot and stove among the dahlias
Playfulness at Potager Colbert: an old coffee pot and stove among the dahlias

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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The Savill garden: redefining the winter frontier

Carex oshimensis Evergold wrapping around a Daphne bohlua Jacqueline Postiill
Carex oshimensis Evergold wrapping around a Daphne bohlua Jacqueline Postiill

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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