Category: Gardening

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Wooden Garden Benches: Smooth and Rough-Hewn, Traditional and Modern

Garden bench under a tree at Scampston Hall Gardens
Scampston Hall Gardens

The longer we linger in gardens and green spaces, the more we value a place to sit. Over the last 18 months one of our most useful garden accessories, the bench, has been widely used and appreciated as never before.

I’m celebrating wooden benches that range in character from beautifully finished to rough-hewn and from classic to contemporary, by way of quirky and downright artsy. If your imagination works this way, try removing the bench from one pictures and replacing it with another. Garden furniture is more than just practical: the style of each bench alters the way we see its surroundings.  Continue reading “Wooden Garden Benches: Smooth and Rough-Hewn, Traditional and Modern”

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Colourful Pavement Garden In Lancashire, England

Pavement garden with lots of flowers

I’ve been fascinated by the use of containers clustered together to create the illusion of a garden since my first visit to Japan where the style is widespread. This fine example of a container garden is much closer to home.

Diminutive, but for me, as sweet as they come, it brightens up the entrance to a traditional stone-faced terrace that opens directly on to the pavement. Continue reading “Colourful Pavement Garden In Lancashire, England”