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[Oznell]

Vanessa Bowen

Vanessa Bowen

In spring, House and Garden UK seems to outdo themselves in their garden features.  Here's a little sampler of recent gardens, structures and houses they've featured:

Belcombe is an old Georgian house in Wiltshire, which has a grotto and its own little classical rotunda.  Looks like fall:

These deep, mysterious, irises planted in a London garden, are called "Dusky Challengers".   (Why do so many London gardens look like they are deep in the country??)  

Morning frost only serves to highlight these fanciful shrubs--

This gorgeous border, with its mix of blue and purple, then backed by cubes of copper beech on the terrace, which are THEN backed by old brick house front, (St. Giles House), is a layered delight. 

A south London garden which has ancient, gnarled and spreading walnut trees, shows a path winding to the homeowner's studio.  That "broken brick" walkway is so enchanting!   The round old stone cistern is a water feature of the garden--  

A view of the topiary at Beckley Park in Oxfordshire.  The yews were shaped by the homeowner in the 1930's and early Forties.   Imagine the work it takes to create such fanciful shapes.  Does anyone here do any topiary themselves?

A Scottish couple in Fife nurture disappearing varieties of daffodils, and host a daffodil festival each year:

Magical Welsh garden surrounds a forester's cottage in the Black Mountains:

This garden belongs to a once-dilapidated farmhouse in Hertfordshire.  The Brits seem to have a knack for combining formality in their garden structure, with a hint of wildness creeping in and livening things up.  Ponds, stunning vistas and soft mists, optional!

[ECBG]

The beauty you showed is unbelievably beautiful!  Every picture entices me to look closer at every detail at the wonderful colors and shapes nature and landscape artists plan and create together.  Some are gifted beyond imagination when beauty like these areas is shown!

Many thanks!

[Oznell]

Well-put, that's how I reacted, @ECBG --  I was in awe of the combination of nature and human artistry to produce such eye-popping loveliness.  Gardens bring such a tranquillity to the hurly-burly of life.  

I have spring fever!

[alliswell]

@Oznell     The Ladew Topiary Gardens, in Monkton, Maryland:

[Oznell]

Ha, ha, so beautiful and playful in Maryland, @alliswell --  thanks for posting!

[alliswell]

In this photo, I like the flagstone and backyard landscaping at this home, and the forsythia is in bloom.  (I have spring fever too}  

[Oznell]

Oh, I do too, @alliswell -- and the colors are so lively and intense.  Forsythia is one of my favorite things about spring, plus snowdrops, hyacinths, crocuses (crocii??)

The stone patio is so well done too, with that natural, curving shape-- very handsome.   A yard you'd want to spend all your time in.

[Lilysmom1]

@Oznell , number three is my favorite.  So peaceful looking.  LM

[Lucky Charm]

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@Oznell wrote:

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Lots of homes here have beautifully sculpted hedges (boxwood, I guess?).

I have toyed with the idea to have a straight-line border along one side of my back yard to keep a neighbor's dog out. 

But, said neighbor's dog would probably ruin it on their side by lifting it's leg...

[just bee]

@Oznell 

This is, of course, off-topic but I thought of you last night as I was driving to work.  I heard the top-of-the-hour news on the car radio and they were reporting that Twinings had discontinued their lapsang souchong.

One customer has likened their new offering, Distinctively Smoky, to “sipping a swimming pool after a chemical incident."