Gardening on a slope doesn't stop Janice Alder from piecing together a beautiful backyard.
"Here are some photos of my cottage style garden in Rickmansworth Hertfordshire. As you can see I garden on a slope which can be challenging but just as exciting as it gives opportunities for different vistas and elevations for planting. I entertain a great deal and have several seating areas to ensure there's somewhere to sit and relax should the sun shine. I allow a lot of plants to self seed – particularly the moon daisies which originate from one plant bought approximately 20 years ago."
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Comments
Janice: your garden pictures gave me so much pleasure. How I long to see them in person, but I will have to make due imagining the full beauty of your landscape. Very interesting style. The wide borders around the lawn are a great display of a cottage style, but yet you still maintain the more formal elements and lines that are typical of English gardens. Fantastic blending of style. It works on many levels.
You have masterfully tamed the slopes, and the seating areas are stunning. The beauty of gardening on a slope, is that the perennials layer so wonderfully. I garden on a fairly flat piece of land, and am always battling the fact that many perennials end up in that 2-3 feet size, which can disturb the rhythm. Yours just pulls the eye up the slope. Great job.
I love the seating area in the 7th photo, with the single chair near the door. Such great balance and color and textures. Love your pots. Quite an inspirational garden. Thanks so much for sharing.
Well, Janice, your pictures make gardening on a slope look easy peasy and yet, I know from experience, it can be quite challenging. You've done a beautiful job mixing bushes into the swaths of perennials and the hardscape wall and steps make things seem stable and secure. Is the frothy cloud of white in the 6th picture down an area where the moon daisies have self seeded and thrived? All quite charming.
G'day Michaele - Don't know what is happening to the GPOD email system recently - not coming through to me at the usual 8.00 pm Eastern Aust. time. Only receiving it via Facebook. Anyway, looks like I can send a pic. now (yippie!). This is how I solve the problem of moving up and down the steep slope of my garden. Also let's me get to the jetty to fish in 1.5 min.
I'm with you, Frank. I haven't received GPOD via e-mail for two days either. I wonder what's going on?
Yep it has been two days for me too Sheila! Looks like reliable and 'early' Kevin is receiving them!
Pretty sweet ride to get you down the slope, Frank!
More importantly, up the slope Sheila!
Ha! ... and I'm sure it is cheaper than a new set of knees!
Actually, I have not relied on the email. So I go "old school" and visit the website from my favorite list every evening before I go to bed.
Love your ATV. So cool.
Love your sign, Frank...my husband is a big fan of his Kubota which I'm assuming yours is also. He additionally has an old Kawasaki which has an automated dump bed which is helpful on occasion but he says the Kubota is a much sweeter ride and drive. We have 54 acres so little farm vehicles are kind of essential.
I haven't been getting the gpod emails either the past 2 days but I have the general gpod page set up as a tab I can just click on. So, if the email hasn't arrived when I sit with at the kitchen table with my laptop and cup of coffee (usually around 7:15), I go to the gpod page to see if there is a new offering. I feel bad when the picture contributor gets gypped of complimentary comments because of the email glitch.
Hi Michaele - I agree with you, it is a great pity that Janice didn't receive more credit (kudos, you would say - see your writing is influencing me!) through complimentary comments on her post because of the email glitch etc.
Yes it is a Kubota - a fine piece of US manufacturing! With 54 acres, no wonder you have machinery to help you move around - I only have a 1 acre property, but the fishing is also an important recreation for me. It is also excellent for carting the wood up the hill to be used in the heater. The Kubota trail sign is a take off of the Kokoda trail - a famous trail used by our soldiers/diggers (as we call them) during WW2 in Papua New Guinea (i.e. a bit of Aussie history thrown in here).
Good morning, Frank, I just wanted to let you know that I've had the same issues with the email this week and have had to go to FG.com to catch up on the blog. Love your ATV. We could definitely use that on our property as my husband and I easily put 20,000 steps on our Fitbits in an average day of gardening, Cheers, Linda on Whidbey
Thanks for sharing your garden story and photos, Janice. The slope has enabled you to bring plenty of character and design features to your cottage garden, including the terracing, retaining walls and steps. Congrats. on a great job. Is the roller for garden art or do you use it for rolling parts of the garden area?
Lovely gardens, Janice. I can easily imagine your guests wandering through the various garden rooms, stopping to enjoy the heady, floral perfume!
Janice, gardening on a slope seems to be both a challenge and a benefit since your plantings are so much more visible when layered down the hill but weeding must be something to dread. Your gardens beg one to stroll among all of those lovely flowers and then sit a bit in one of your well positioned viewing spots. I especially like the chair by the clematis vines. It looks like a good place to catch a little sun and since we live in similar climates, I know how important that can be.
OHHHHH Be still, my heart. So fabulous... Love the lattice fence & gathering table. The long view shot with the surrounding trees was such a pretty perspective. The graveled areas... Love it all. Love the English. Love their gardens.
Wish I was there.....
I was beginning to feel panicked about not receiving my GPOD. It is really an important part of my morning! I didn't realize you could go to the website! Duh. Thanks, Janice for posting your photos. It gives us a glimpse into your 'neck of the woods' ! I really want to visit in person! Thanks so much for posting...
What a beautiful balance of orderliness and exuberance you have achieved in your gardens. Now I have to go back for a third time and study how you did it. Absolutely lovely.
Wow! Impressive AND a lot of work! Thanks for sharing Janice.
Makes me think of that wonderful old British song from the twenties, "A Garden in the Rain." Everything is so subtle and your color palette is exquisite. Brava!
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