April walks in the languedoc
Filed under: 2012, landscape | 2 Comments
Tags: Cistus, spring, vines
The wild flower meadow looked sumptuous this year. This was the first week in June. When the orchids are in flower it’s possible to determine the medieval ridge and furrow lines, defined by the plants themselves; the orchids like it damp and nestle in the ‘furrows’, whereas the oxeye daisies prefer the drier slightly higher ‘ridges’.
On the same day, looking across a corner of the wild flower meadow up towards the long border. No one on the seat, a favourite haunt of the delightful tabby cat, Titch, who usually finds me and insists on settling purposefully on my sketchbook and then holds up proceedings until she’s ready to move on, no point in my thinking I’m in charge!
Mid June and I am in this area enclosed by clipped yew hedge, close to the house. Surrounded by a heady mix of geranium, baptisia and cistus all flowering like crazy making sure the bees are spoilt for choice. The black bamboo stems stand out strongly in the dazzling sunlight that bounces the light into dramatic contrasts.
Things were really hotting up by midsummer’s day. The phlomis are all singing and dancing, overlooked by the Gleditsia triacanthos “Elegantissima” or honey locust, a small ornamental tree with wonderful foliage.
Filed under: Great Dixter Garden | 4 Comments
Tags: drawings
A little late, but if you can cast your mind back to May, the apple blossom was shooting and tulips predominated in the beds. The image above shows a small area of the upper garden. Perhaps now that we are in high summer it’s good to be reminded of the promise and magic that May held, now grown into maturity.
A May view of the parliament of birds, showing aquilegias and the leafy stems of the lilies that will flower in a months time
There’s a thumbnail sketch in the corner where I’m working out the viewpoint and composition.
A view of the long barn with the oasthouse kilns in the background. This tree peony, just coming into flower has self seeded and grown out of the retaining wall in the sunken garden
Down in the wildflower meadow, a pile of prunings appears to be waiting for a match, surrounded by blossoming small fruit trees, a blowy day with wonderful sharp light.
Into the vegetable garden, the netted enclosure will protect the soft fruit from determined badgers who are particularly partial to strawberries. A huge compost heap looms on the left.
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Tags: drawings
I began this sketchbook in March 2010. The intention is to make a visual record of the seasonal changes I find in the garden and looking out to the wider landscape.
Why Dixter? I have been visiting this garden off and on for twenty-three years and now that I live within easy reach, rather than in London, I can pootle over there every week or two. The delights are many fold; the impressive structure of the clipped yew hedges and topiary, the beautiful timber frame buildings, the intimate garden rooms awash with colour in the summer months, the pastoral views out across rolling East Sussex farmland.
There are so many aspects to this unique plant paradise created by the late Christopher Lloyd who lived and gardened here for a lifetime. I hope that I can convey some of the joys and surprises that Great Dixter has to offer.
The pollarded Salix alba var. sericea towards the east end of the long border. The knobbly stems are not yet showing any leaf growth but in a few weeks the rugged sculptural shapes will be concealed, meanwhile their texture and form are great to draw. The cold north-easterly winds meant that I had to draw quite fast. The under storey of tulips are showing tight buds and will be colouring up soon.
There’s not a lot happening in the exotic garden in late March/ early April, it’s still far too early, but there is a magic in these straw and bamboo structures that have protected the banana plants (Musa basjoo) and other tender perennials through the winter.
What is so fantastic in spring, is that you see the spaces and the structure of the garden. The clipped yews are like ‘the conference of the birds’ in this area heading for The High Garden. All the sticks you see here are the small bamboo markers in the nearly bare ground indicating the position of, as yet, invisible plants, hundreds of them.
The house, in the background, is swathed in polythene and scaffolding and will be for some time I guess, as necessary repair and renovation work is under way.
Up in the high garden the frames for the espaliered fruit trees give a strong visual structure against the dark figures of the conifers.
Later in April I am tempted by the view out across the field at the bottom of the meadow areas, where the hazels are budding up above the narcissus and the snakeshead fritillarias.
Back in the topiary garden the ground is dotted with erupting spring buds but here I am looking at a flowering euphorbia, stems all a bit wayward, making a wonderful linear pattern against the architectural block of yew. A left over dierama stem with seed pods, has hung on through the winter weather, still retaining its natural elegance.
Filed under: Great Dixter Garden | 12 Comments
Tags: drawings
