A walk around a garden can be very therapeutic.

I received an email from a client today, it was most thought provoking, all about the therapeutic effects of a well thought out landscape, in her case an ancient woodland area.

I’ve been designing and building some amazing landscapes since graduating way back in 1975.

Sometimes when we finished a project the garden took on it’s own aura – one a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit literally changed colour and became this amazing golden yellow, you could almost feel the colour ( if that’s possible)

I’m in the business of creating dreams for people – if we manage to design well the garden does indeed make folks feel happy and at peace. More often than not we tend to energise folks into taking more time to enjoy what we have created.

One of our favourite additions is a path around the garden, it needs to be wide enough for two to walk side by side so about 5ft wide is ideal, in this way the enjoyment of the garden becomes a journey with a destination as well as a practical gardening use.

In this case we added a pergola for a little shade as you walk, as well as a focal point from the terrace, in the distance you can also make out a well feature, so the path has various destinations as you walk around.

It’s also a good idea to create a firm edge to a path, to prevent it from migrating into the landscape, the path itself is made with a  sub base of limestone and a dressing of finer binding gravel to act as a wearing surface – requiring a little weeding and a rake & roll every two months.

Always set the lawn level about 1/2inch (15mm)  to an inch(25mm) above the path edge, in this way you can clean cut the lawn with just the mower, and those dreadful strimmers can be left in the truck !

You can hear more about our techniques, ideas, views of experts, interviews with home owners with beautiful gardens on our new radio show called Growing Trends – you can find us at www.cravingtalkradio.com

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