GARDENING - PASTURES NEW

It comes to us all at some stage – I went through it this time last year and my long-suffering editor is currently going through the process. Moving house and home is part and parcel of modern day life and can be one of the most stressful, hectic, hazard strewn and exciting processes – doubly so if you have already created your dream garden at the property you are leaving! It’s never easy to say au revoir to a garden you’ve become emotionally and often financially attached to - so what can you do to move on (in all senses of the word) and make the most out of your new plot? Anyone who is selling their property with a lovingly sorted garden and hoping to relocate it to the new one should think again. Anything that is physically planted in the garden is considered to be part of the fixtures and fittings and so can’t be legally dug up once the sale has gone through. If you want to salvage a few things from your precious plot, it is best to do it before the marketing pictures are taken or stick them in pots and keep them off-site. Apart from a few really special bits and pieces, I always take the view that plants are a bit like lightbulbs – they are replaceable and only last a finite time anyway, so try not to get too emotional about starting again; this is actually where all the fun starts!

The first step with your new garden is to take your time to assess and discover what it is that you’ve already got. In my case, it was effectively a large car park which had been paved over to create a safe area for an adult in a wheelchair. Having not been ‘gardened’ for over two years, it was largely wilderness, but it had great ‘bones,’ including being surrounded by 3 metre high stone walls with no immediate neighbours – creating a perfect private suntrap. Against all professional sensibilities, I never followed the standard protocols that I do with all my customers, namely drawing up a scaled plan of the garden so I could evolve a new design. Instead, I toiled away, lifting a huge amount of boulders and reusing them to create raised beds. I also shifted lots of massive old Yorkstone slabs (moved using methods only known to me and the builders of Stonehenge) to create a framework of pathways. It was only through grafting and getting a feel for the garden (which now resembled the Somme on a bad day) that gradually a very distinct design started to rise phoenix-like from the ground and in my head. My new plot is now virtually finished, and we are really happy with the result – but without having a plan to work to it could all have gone disastrously wrong. In my defence, I do this for a living, so I knew how we could effectively dismantle the existing garden, save and reuse as much of the recovered materials as possible and then rebuild according to a plan which had slowly blossomed in my mind. I admire anyone who can sit and watch their new plot for a period to see what comes up, but I’m afraid that’s not for me.

If you are in the same position, my best advice is to get some advice and unlock the potential in your new garden – seize the day!

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