Sunday 20 January 2013

My Inspiration.

I thought I would share with you some of the inspirational pictures I find on the web. I tend to copy and save a picture of a garden that I think is beautiful and save it to inspire me. These gardens are all very special and although my own is miles off being as wonderful as these are, with a little bit of help from their inspiration and many many years of hard work and growth I hope my own will one day come close.


I love the stepping stones set into the grass, I am planning something similar as a path to a bench.


More stepping stones and the lovely informality of lupins and hollyhocks.


A relaxing bench at the bottom of the garden (yet more stepping stones).


This beautiful climbing rose is called Piere de Ronsard or Eden Rose.


OK, the house is probably more inspiring than the garden, but the general mood the whole makes is the character I would love.


Some nice higgledy-piggledy planting.


Just wonderful


Dream garden.


A wonderful selection of flowers.

As you can see, there is a real theme in the type of gardens I love, the rambling nature of them, the way plants look as though they have grown wildly where they wanted to (which of course is not true as these have taken very careful planning). No corners, lots of curves. It is always a great idea to get inspiration from photos and I look at them carefully when I am planning something new in the garden. It's worth trying anything, because everything in a garden can be fairly easily reversed if it goes wrong.

20 comments:

  1. It looks like you like the 'cottage garden' look Dan - I'm going to purchase the yellow book from the National Garden Scheme this year and visit some of the open gardens for inspiration but these are beautiful natural gardens x

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  2. We have a cottage garden dan
    It does look beautiful at certain times of the year, but can also look dreadfully untidy at others.....
    They were originally designed to be labour free as most cottage holders had to concentrate on growing veg not flowers.
    Having said this the " dream garden " looks lovely.
    The secret is intelligent planting and a good eye

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  3. Those cottage gardens are SO pretty! I love that look but hard to achieve here in Oz with our really hot dry summers.
    Judy xx

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  4. Cottage gardens are lovely.

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  5. Great cottage gardens to whet your gardening appetite. The stepping stones look so inviting. Have you considered joining the Cottage Garden Society. Membership is modestly priced, it's a great source of information, there's a lovely magazine sent out regularly and, best of all, they organise a seed exchange each year which would enable you to obtain a lot of lovely seeds, not just flowers, but vegetables too, to try out for a teeny-weeny handling charge. Here's the link:

    http://thecottagegardensociety.org.uk/homepage

    I had a cottage garden in a previous home and it was wonderful - hard work, but so worth it :)

    Elizabeth

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  6. I looove the lupins and hollyhock photo. I would like a cottage garden too one day. :) Lovely inspiration!

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  7. Just lovely!!!! You know I like inspiration!!! Good job!!

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  8. Don`t we all want gardens like that? But, to be honest, they need an awful lot of attention, hoeing, weeding, deadheading, transplanting, deviding clumps each autumn. Are you prepared for all that? And do you have the time to spare? You will need to be out there every day to keep on top of things. Keep that in mind. Your pics are certainly idylic, but also a bit unrealistic.

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  9. Some of these gardens are growing trees and climbers very close to the building; some appear to be on the building itself. You must consider the damage to the exterior surfaces over a long period of time. Replacing rotting timbers, cracked bricks, and tiny roots embedded in the other surfaces is both time consuming, financially draining, and disheartening. Not good. You would not buy a house with that damage, so do not do it to your own home.

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  10. I love hollyhocks! They remind me of old Polish cottage gardens. In the past, all cottages had hollyhocks around them, now people tend to grow thujas around their houses. I love your inspirations! They quite agree with mine. Greetings from snowy Poland!

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  11. You are a big old softie at heart Dan arent you? They are my type of garden too, you cant beat those lovely old cottage gardens.

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  12. These are magnificent, but I especially love the lupins and hollyhocks. Must buy those seeds for my garden here in the States and hope they grow!

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  13. Hello, I've just come across your photographs of this lovely garden. It is an inspiration. I guess the secret is to keep it looking good throughout the summer, not just for a few weeks. I haven't quite mastered that with mine, yet.

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  14. Hansel and Gretel meets the Seven Dwarves. just beautiful.

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  15. may i use one of your photos on my facebook and leave a link to this wonderful blog?

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  16. The pics are just wonderful. I could smell the flowers :-) its a dream of ours but never a reality sadly

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