It’s a lovely big garden in the St. Andrews area of Bristol, with the family that live there being new additions to the property. The house and garden both needed some tender loving care. Whilst we got to work on the borders, Aquaflora Landscapes modernised the pond. They did a fantastic job and the new pond plants are attracting lots of wildlife to the garden! Due to the work on the house a new border was constructed next to a new fence. We decided to plant this up with Cherry Laurel to grow as hedging, with mixed planting in front.
To the left of the area where we were to plant the cherry laurel, a large Prunus pissardii nigra grows. As this was so big, we decided to plant small cherry laurel plants rather than more mature ones so that they wouldn’t get stressed searching for water. Cherry laurel grows about half a metre a year, so these will soon fill the space.
The garden will be mulched with woodland bark from Fountain Timber in the next few weeks. This is great at suppressing weeds and retaining moisture in the soil. It also gives a nice finish to a garden, especially mulching around young trees to help them whilst they develop.
For the mixed planting in front of the cherry laurel we included some sedums, a spreading cistus and low growing hebes, along with spirea, ferns and sedum stonecrop. The area under this tree is part shady part sunny, due to its aspect and the canopy.
We also included some bright, variegated vinca in front of the cherry laurel, which will create a mat to suppress weeds from popping up. A bright magenta buddleja will grow up on the edge of the gazebo. This area which was once almost open to the road, now offers privacy and protection for their young daughter.
The grass in front of the gazebo near the hedge was patchy and didn’t grow well. We decided to join up the two borders, fusing the planting together.
A nice curved edge on the border, along with some shade loving plants and a beautiful red Acer palmatum, will give a new coherence to this part of the garden.
The woodland border under a large beech tree, we planted with a variety of ferns, pulmonaria, hellebores, grasses, bulbs, euonymus and a stunning orange pyracantha.
Autumn is the perfect time for planting bulbs, and we enjoyed planting alliums along the lavender walkway. This is going to look lovely in May/June.
Along with the Acer, we also included a Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ in the main sunny border, looking towards the pond. We are also in discussion to remove the dogwood at the end and replace this with a Magnolia. This would give more space around the pond, and would certainly brighten up this area of the garden.
We are really looking forward to seeing this garden come into it’s full glory in due course. It’s such a serene and peaceful space in the heart of the city and we fully enjoyed being there.
