It has been interesting to see how the gardens whether in the North of England or in the East of the Mediterranean have reacted to the summer. In most cases the link has been the presence or lack of water. 

In Yorkshire water is obviously not a problem as the greenness testifies. The lawns are lush, the borders full, the meadows look a little brown…but that’s all.  

In Italy we have decided to save on water bills and irrigate less. The scorched ( and I mean scorched) lawn shows the result of this …the “ borders”  …mostly shrubby as one would expect Rosemary , Dwarf Pomegranates, Lavender and Perovskia have all bloomed and survived well…. Olives survive on practically no water....as can be seen by some of those visible from our garden

In Corfu the garden is that odd mixture found in Mediterranean gardens that are part irrigated. Green borders surrounded by lush borders lie in the heart of the garden. In the peripheral areas or in areas were we have just decided not to irrigate a thirstier more parched look dominates. 

The last photo shows a forest fire in Albania......for us it was the evenings TV show

The site of the proposed Museum is near the Castle of Ujazdow in the centre of Warsaw on an escarpment that overlooks the River Vistula. The Castle is now a Museum of Contemporary Art. At present the proposed Museum and the Castle are separated by a horrendous four-lane motorway constructed in the 1970’s. As part of the development envisaged in the competition a section of the motorway would be buried thus restoring the landscape and joining the new Museum with the Castle.

Our landscape proposals were based on the Baroque city plan completed in the 1780’s.This plan established clear views and a number of axes across the ancient city. We re-established some of the old historical relationships between the Castle, roads and vistas. Some of the circular points on the old baroque plan have been reinvented as transport hubs for Metro and Bus routes. Tree lined pedestrian walkways link the new Museum, Castle and the nearby Botanic Gardens. Canals with fountains set amongst a plantation of trees loosely based on a quincunx strengthen the axis between the Castle and the new Museum.

Presentation rules were strict with one model of the proposed Museum and three A0 black and white plans per entry only allowed.

The site consists of a former Tobacco Factory with house and outbuildings surrounded by approximately 15 hectares of fields that have been bio dynamically farmed for the past 25 years. It holds a certificate from the Italian Agricultural Ministry that validates this.

It has been purchased by the Barbanera Publishing Company (www.barbanera.it) founded in 1762 in nearby Foligno. Barbanera is Italy’s third largest publisher of Almanac’s selling over three million copies a year. Advice and information on all important events and activities in one’s life can be sought and answered using their Almanac based in part on detailed astrological calculations. In days gone by such advice was followed to the letter detailing when to have babies, when to sow vegetables in the garden, what colours to use in the house, whom to marry and what to do with your husband (or wife) once you had. Nowadays we have Vogue, House and Garden or Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen to help us on these tricky issues.

The project consists of designing demonstration gardens around the buildings for visitors and staff at Barbanera. Later developments would include a restaurant using produce from the fields that have been bio dynamically farmed. The long term aim is to provide a sort of lifestyle centre ……visitors would be able to spend a day or half a day and see how the land is worked bio dynamically and how these bio dynamic rhythms infiltrate our everyday life….with various specialised areas demonstrating particular crops or flowers. 

The first speaker was Eric Dhont ( www.erikdhont.com ) from Belgium who mainly spoke about his projects in France and Belgium. He showed some wonderful CAD drawings of giant taxus topiary pieces…they were amorphous cloud like creatures that stalked the garden scape in a project in France. He had a gentle and softly spoken manner that charmed the audience.

Jinny Blom (www.jinnyblom.com) followed with an artful lecture demonstrating the healing nature of gardens. She appears quite scatty but underneath is highly organised…and her lecture reflected this. It was informal, amusing and erudite.

Lunch followed and so did I. As I stared up at the 300 or so faces I wished fleetingly that the ground would open and I would disappear. I did not and the many rehearsals paid their dividend. I found my groove with only a few moments of confusion. I described my journey from my early roots in English gardening through to designing & gardening in the Mediterranean. En route I described various influential gardens and people. The research I completed for this lecture fascinated me. It made me realize how different and recent English gardening and land use is in comparison to the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is ancient in origin in comparison whether in its gardens, its plants or in its use and attitude to the landscape.

Subsequently Roberto Silva (www.silvalandscapes.com) from Brazil spoke about his training and work in Brazil and work in London in particular the Foster Garden. If I was nervous Roberto was doubly so but he spoke well.

Finally Ulf Nordfell (www.ramboll.com) from Sweden talked on his work throughout Scandinavia including the Linnaeus Garden and Telegraph gardens for Chelsea Flower Show. I found his lecture the most interesting with his influences and work firmly in the North of Europe. My lecture had started in Middle Europe ( i.e England) and then migrated South to the Mediterranean. Ulf’s inspiration is in the forests and meadows of Sweden far removed from the heat and dust of the Mediterranean. It was this contrast that intrigued me.

More information can be found on the website of the Society of Garden Designers at www.sgs.org etc

Trite:death is part of life. I miss him and can’t just dig him out and replace him with another as much as I’d like to. So. Death. Unfortunately, we know what it looks like in the garden.

We were also talking about the terrific damage done by a porcupine. The little bastard is digging up my tulip bulbs and finds the sternbergia tasty.

Alliums are a fine snack. Foxtail lilies finish off a mighty fine meal. See the photograph above for destroyed year-old wisteria and uprooted dwarf pomegranate. See the quills in the wake of the damage. Tim wants to stay up at night and shoot the culprit. We don’t want to put out poison as I’ve got a dog. Maybe a trap.

Tim's drawing poetically describes Porky’s route around the garden. We’ve tapped the holes under the fence.

After the snow we’re able to follow the tracks. It’s days are numbered. 

The dwarf pomegranate is a beautiful and unusual small shrub. As summer fades into autumn the small delicate leaves become a pale yellow backdrop for the miniature fruits and scarlet coloured flowers. This happens together in one sizzling display mixing fruit, flowers and foliage.

It is the dainty fruit that stand out the most.They sit on the branches like little cherubs with trumpets held aloft. The fruits do bare (no pun intended) a resemblance to a rosy cheeked cherub’s bottom with the elongated calyx playing the part of the trumpet.There are a quite a number of cultivars of both the species and the dwarf. Named cultivars of the species vary depending on the countries with such evocative names as Mangulati (Saudi Arabian), Aswad (Iraqi), Red Loufani (Israeli), Kandhari, Bedana and Dholka. (India). American cultivar names are more pragmatic e.g Wonderful and Sweet Fruited. The dwarf pomegranate cultivar names are more botanical eg Multiplex (double creamy white)  or Variegata (double, scarlet bordered with streaked yellowish-white).

Both the species (see above) and the dwarf form develop into dense multi stemmed twiggy shrubs. A mature specimen of the former will reach as high as thirty foot in the Mediterranean and fifteen foot on a warm wall in England. Great Dixter has good specimen growing on a sheltered wall against the house. The dwarf shrub reaches approximately four foot in height. It is possible to purchase mature specimens of both. They make striking pot plants (and being drought resistant are particularly suited to containers). Good specimens of the species will have three to four thick branches at least ten centimetres in diameter at about five foot in height. These are often old orchard plants dug up and sold onto the nursery trade.

More text will follow on this garden but since Corfu is so topical at the moment I decided to bring forward the deadline. The olives above were planted under Venetian rule......farmers were given a cash subsidy to plant them. It is one reason why the Island is so green. These same plantings now form thick groves around the house.

A  framed view to Albania with part of the main house on the left and the Bracken House on the right......it has taken five or so years to get to this stage...a lot of building work. The Greek myths still live ........Pericles was the Architect, Hercules the Builder and the clients stayed in Adonis's House. Just regular island names.

This classic "before" photograph was taken from the Agapanthus borders looking towards the Bracken House.

Completion of the extensive top soiling and re-grading works (Spring 07 I think) has made a considerable difference......there is nothing as calming as an area of graded soil to the landscapers eye.

The interior of the Bracken House, the scene of many early evening cocktails. This open sided breeze house was built on the ruins of the original house. It gives wonderful views over the Corfu Straights to Albania.

Agapanthus praecox......in their second year of planting bloom their hearts out. I sowed an annual flower mix in the grassy area around them which germinated but never flowered.  Next time I will do my own mixture of annual, biennial and perennial seeds that will include Clary, Queens Anne Lace and Chicory. When we made our own mixture for a Provencal garden Salvia sclarea (Clary) flowered particularly well in the dry continuous sun.

The steps from the entrance curve up past the Bracken House.

Wintery view to Albania from Corfu.

A quincunx of Betula jacquemontii in front of the house. These are tricky to establish but well worth it.

Winter 2007 in the fountain garden. 

The lake looks perfect in this picture. In fact it was almost a marsh with over 1.2m of silt and no depth of water to support any type of flora or fauna.

We decided to dredge it. The dirty undertaking released tons of liquid silt that was removed from the lake and stored in the nearby field to dry. The planning process was detailed and long winded but the finished result is a lake with deep clear water stocked with brown trout, roach, bream and other fish and native plants. It was a wonderful sight to see the fish jumping in the summer. The swans came back in October.

The vegetable garden was constructed before we started work on the lake.

John, Head Gardener, produces a fine crop of Dahlias.

This nineteenth century wall in Ireland near Cork. It is a lovely weathered granite grey colour with the rusty back fern (Ceterach officinarum) growing on it. It is quite a mixture of sizes and shapes. When the client asked how this wall was to be included in the master plan it set me thinking. As a consequence I now have a good stock of wall photography. 

This grey stone wall in the photo above was taken in the Yorkshire Dales about five years ago. It was built at Throstles Nest a project I have been involved in for a few years now. It is quite new and there has been no time yet for any rusty back ferns to establish. It is pretty typical in terms of style and construction for the Dales. It seems amazingly even in its colouring and I love the way it builds up in scale from the large stones at the base to the smaller ones at the top.

 I went to the island of Chios, a Greek  Island,  in the spring of 2007 for a prospective job. Chios was once a wealthy Genovese colony in the Middle Ages. As a consequence it has these amazing old merchant houses dotted around the landscape. Nothing came of the project but whilst there I noticed that a number of the older walls used this decorative motif in the mortar. This wall was on a lane near the site of the prospective garden. On the other side of the wall was one of the old merchant houses I just mentioned. I am not quite sure how it is constructed. It looks like they stuck maltezers into  the lime mortar.

Another Greek Wall. This one on Corfu where I have been working on for about ten years. I think the owner of this wall was inventive but clearly short on the readies. 

View of the Mill nearest the house.

The largest mill and furthest from the house is shown above. It is surrounded by tall stone walls once used to protect the milled corn from those suffering in the Famines of the nineteenth century. The building and banks have been repaired and stabilized, overgrown trees and undergrowth removed. We plan a big plant up in the Autumn, weather permitting, with plants from Crug Farm Plants in North Wales. Maintenance is an issue....the gardened areas are spread around the estate and are worked by one gardener with occasional help. There are, thank the lord, no plans to create swathes of naturalistic flowery borders. The only flowers will be on trees, shrubs and climbers that once planted will fend for themselves.

A visit to Ninfa earlier this year provided inspiration for gardening around ruins (for further details see Ninfa Gardens : www.italyheaven.co.uk/lazio/ninfa.html).The climate in Southern Irealnd is nearest to that of Cornwall or Brittany and it is to these gardens that we look for inspiration about plants. 

Unfortunately since the photograph was taken the rose covered archway has been hit by a lorry and demolished. It will be rebuilt.