Garden Design

One of our assignments, otherwise known as challenges. Is to re-design RBGE's Physic Garden. It is a challenge I have serious issues with... I have had the Physic Garden, otherwise known as the Dem Garden's plan on my wall for weeks in a vain attempt to try and figure out what to do with it... so far, this hasn't worked so well.

Diane Pyper, a garden designer came to discuss with the class how to understand the concepts of space, form and movement within the garden, as well as creating ambience and harmony within the garden.

The Dem garden was originally planted in the 1960's, and is a collection of three rectangular beds on the North side of the giant Beech hedge. The beds are hemmed in by two long hedges, one straight yew hedge and one holly hedge that has a "pregnant" bum that intrudes on the gardens space - this makes it difficult to plan in a new garden design. Or... I found this to be a major issue with planning a new garden design. The beds have, over time, grown out of control with some plants spreading uncontrolled along the beds... this makes the original designers ideas hard to place. The only difficult to remove botanical in the garden, despite the walls of hedges, is the lone standing yew tree at the back of the garden - which has a runway like appearance in some respects.

It's going to be a difficult re-design... seeing as I don't seem to have the brain to get round the old design and put in place a new one. Might be time to call in the big guns!