Kristen's Project

Did you see the Head Gardener in that final photo?

I have told her that pushing an empty barrow is a cheap management trick ...

 

I wondered how you were getting on ,what a beautiful setting.
The Folly is very special ,it looks like all of your dreams are coming to fruition.
Very well done.
Look forward to the grand opening

 

I remember, some years ago, when we all went for a Group Wander at East Ruston Old Vicarage, my mate Shiney, good fellow that he is, filled his boot with buckets of water and hedge trimmings so that I could use them as cuttings for the odd thousand plants that I needed for a project. As the two of us were moving slopping buckets from his car to mine you were heard to say, in what I thought was a rather loud stage whisper!, "I put my hedge trimming on the compost heap"

Least ways I think it was you?!!

Well "yes" and "no" and "sideways" too

The Chessmen have got pretty big ... and (I have now discovered) that means that their growth rate slows a lot, and when you change your mind and lop several feet off there is a delay. Reminiscent of my Metalwork teacher at school when I was let loose on the milling machine to "face" the vice I was making. "Boy, you'll be wanting the putting-on-machine now" ...

Original thought was to have "square cube" bases, and as the round-shaped tops developed the cubes looked stupid. So I'm letting the bases "grow-out" so they can become curvy (in both sense of the word). Right now they aren't the right sort of "curvy" at all - the kids refer to them as "Dad's collection of willies" ... judge for yourself?


The original "front garden" ... Leylandii <spit>


The replacement ... that was 10 years ago


Last year

From the left :
Castle Willy,Willy Knight, Bishop Willy, King and Queen Willy

And now for "Sideways" :

The back garden, when we moved in:

We filled in the pond, and removed the back-row of <spit> Leylandii, and nursed the front row of light-starved Thujas back to health ...

and then the huge Cherry tree fell down - upside: it was the first time we'd been able to pick all the cherries! downside: big gap.


Decided that we'd like a Cloud Pruned "modern" amorphous shape - the sort of thing that Jacques Wirtz did - this from his private garden:



So I got my Spade and Barrow out ...



I had some Box plants (grown from cuttings a few years earlier) ...



... and as luck would have it a family friend moved house and found a garden stuffed with so many box that she asked me to take away whatever I wanted. Hard to believe, but you would not have even noticed that I had been and knicked any.



That was 2017 ... all was set, just needed to sit back and let them bush-up. Management had even given me a planting plan:



so I knew I had got it right ... and the whole Cloud Pruned concept seemed rather like the way I trimmed my hair back in the 70's - a cross between Bohemian and Hippy ... Gentlemen barbers nearly went bust then, eh Shiney?, with chaps either not bothering, or just lopping-some-off as necessary. So i reckoned I could manage the clipping part.

... until last year. "When they grow up a bit more I want a pair of Dragons facing each other"

Double-u Tee Ef

That is is a whole different ball of wax of course. And it didn't stop there ... "And then in that bit of scrub over the the right I want Hogwarts Castle"

These blinking projects "have a bit of a habit of ..." ...

... the Yew Castle Walls were delivered this spring, and I'm growing them on until they get some crenellations

 

Good to see you back here @Kristen I see you have put your feet up these last few years.

 

It takes me all night to do what I used to do all night ...

Oops ... wrong forum!

 

Hi Kristen,
Welcome back to the Madhouse....
Strange how things are right now...
Anyway, stay safe, stay well and be kind,
Namaste,
Jenny

 

Great to see you posting again I often wondered how your garden was evolving, it certainly doesn’t disappoint

 

Nice to know your still around @Kristen,i was only thinking about you yest,i was repotting my brugs i still have the white one you sent me yrs ago

 

I've missed you posting about your garden ventures Kristen, it's lovely to see the changes you have made.

Any chance of borrowing your barrow and spade?

 

Hi sheal x your clematis is flowering too,il take some pics this week xx

 

Look really well Kristen very grand, I get the impression you like topiary / formal look . What over plans do you have ? Look like a huge garden

 

Hi @joolz68, I hope all is well with you. I'd love to see pics of the Clematis. Unfortunately I couldn't bring it with me when I moved.

 

Thank you for a brilliant update I remember finding your website a couple of years ago (I think following a link that @shiney had posted) and read the entire thing in an afternoon, but promptly forgot to bookmark it and could never find my way back again - not making that mistake twice!