 He decided early on that he would not undertake a massive digging operation
involving months of strenuous labour that would immediately tie the garden to
a permanent structure. He wanted to experiment with shapes, colours
and water features so instead of digging down he built up, "drystone
wall" fashion, using broken slabs and pond liner, taking advantage
of the slope to produce a running stream effect and a pond with a
small fountain. He has dismantled and moved this structure several
times over the past few years. The stream, in its current incarnation, has some
plants are in containers, other plants have been pushed into the crevices
between the broken slabs and many, like the bulrush, have just grown
themselves. |
As for the rest of the plantings,
at first he made small beds for shallow rooted flowers and vegetables
by clearing rectangles of grass and spreading compost from spent
growbags over the surface. Later, when the miniature horse arrived,
he spread fresh stable manure over a larger area and left it
to rot in situ before digging it in the following spring.