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A week of site visits

It’s definitely Winter here at Manor Farm Barn this week as we’ve had the first flurry of snow. It looked so pretty but didn’t last long sadly. The Winter sun has taken over showing the Hakonechloa off in it’s Autumn colour against the Cotswold stone… Busy busy with work as always – I have several projects being built at the moment so am spending my time travelling about visiting 3 separate sites & my clients both new & existing. On top of that I’m madly trying to get some drawing done. All good – it’s great to be busy – …

Designing a new topiary garden

You might recognise this garden if you know my work…this is part of the Secret Garden at Pip’s Place. Have a look here – https://www.joannealderson.com/portfolio/large-gardens-estates/pips-place/. We bought the big taxus topiary beehives in Belgium a few years ago as part of phase 1 & now we are going to add to them. Ginni asked to meet up to discuss this garden & pondered making some changes. She told me how expensive it was to maintain with mowing etc & sadly all the Ilex crenata edging (supposedly the wonder plant replacement for buxus) had died! My immediate thought was to create …

On site today in Buckinghamshire

Well lockdown has eased so I am back on site & visiting clients – both old & new. It’s been relatively easy thankfully as we can stay outside; that said I got soaked to the skin last Thursday & Friday as it lashed down – yuk! Today I was in Buckinghamshire visiting Pip’s Place – a large garden design & build project of several acres where phase 2 has just got underway. It’s a lovely project up in the Chilterns – so – it’s cold & blustery in winter & today in mid June we absolutely roasted in 31 degree …

Progress on our own garden build

This is a quick progress blog on our burgeoning new garden. I am so pleased with it & truly delighted it is still happening through this wretched coronavirus pandemic. It’s been a brilliant distraction & something that truly brings me joy! David of DS Landscapes is coming on his own & ploughing on with it – all safe & at a distance from us who are mostly working indoors. What a difference now the trees have come into leaf & the planters are planted up too… Look at the size of this heap of compost! This is after most of …