We’re peeking over the fence into gardens around the world to explore their places in our lives today. This week, Natalie's Bedfordshire garden.
I was in my early thirties when I moved into this house with my partner Greg, and dog, Pippins. Suddenly I owned something; I couldn’t believe it. Our home became an experiment, a space I could colour, decorate and make beautiful without the constraints of a rental. In our garden I got to work, pulling out two gigantic New Zealand flax and raising the canopy of an overgrown Viburnum Opulus, to allow underplanting. I wanted woodland, naturalistic, wafty. Ethereal and playful.
Over the years, it has become a kind of mutating paradise – a studio of sorts. Somewhere to take respite and be myself. A place to tune out of the noise. The shed became a writing den, though I jokingly refer to it as my “therapy room” as many reflective conversations take place there with friends and family.
Last year we replaced the sad grass with a woodchip path; I love the crunchy sound underfoot. I enjoy the theatre of gardening. The way the colours and textures change according to the seasons. Gardeners are also artists and editors – plants are added, and subtracted. No decision is made lightly. You look at the garden as a whole before zooming in, focusing on each plant and how it fits with the bigger picture, allowing things to grow tall, to meander, cascade. To make and maintain a garden is a creative endeavor. But anyone can do it, it just takes patience and much observation!
I fill my house with cut flowers, and dry out hydrangea seedheads to make wreaths. I press flowers and sell them at fairs. One Christmas, I covered our mirror with the seedheads of hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ and was delighted with the results; it lasted nine months!
We have had many garden visitors over the years including hedgehogs, mice, frogs, newts and many birds. Last week we watched blue tits fledge our birdbox. Seeing them interact with the world for the first time is so precious.
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Follow Natalie: @this.constant.gardener
