Garden solutions: ‘Sometimes we have to be ruthless for long-term benefit’

GARDENS can be designed and built throughout the year, but in practice work generally tails off for the winter as public perception is to focus on their garden in spring and summer.

However, enquiries in the spring, when designers and contractors are busy, result in a garden possibly not being completed until late summer or the owner not having use of their garden in the warmer months. Whereas the design projects I’m working on at present will lead to construction February/March and I’ll then plant up in spring ready for use in the wonderful summer we hope to have.

One of my clients decided to use my gardening services as a Christmas present for their son and his wife. I did two half-day visits to prune shrubs, but we also discussed ideas to make the garden safer for their three-year-old. I suggested creating a border between sloping lawn and a retaining wall, and altering the existing border to compensate for the loss of lawn space. The plants in the borders were planted too close together so removing a few would reduce maintenance. I love a project like this as it spans the boundaries between gardening and design. Once the owner understood what I was trying to achieve, he was happy to allow me to carry out extensive pruning to create shrubs that would grow back where they were planted.

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Nothing prepared him for my second visit though when I cut back a clematis and jasmine to the ground as they were growing over an extensive network of dead branches. It wasn’t an ideal time to prune and the clematis may not flower next year, but sometimes we have to be ruthless for the long-term benefit. From a design perspective, I wanted to give back the space that had been lost and allow them to manage the plants and enjoy flowering at eye level. There is always a design element to gardening where an understanding of the function of plants is an asset and my one-day course on this subject has generated a lot of interest.

• Diane Pyper (01506 414 459, www.NewDimensionsGD.com)

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