Doug Holloway’s Blog & Films - Life, all things Landscape & other stuff...
I normally recommend to my clients that we plant trees, shrubs and perennials in a hierarchy of sizes. That means with slower growing items such as trees and shrubs, its best to plant them at least a certain size so we can enjoy the garden the way it is meant to be as soon as it is finished. If the plant needs to be pruned specifically or a particular shape developed, this is another time
I wanted to talk a little about complex construction and layers in this blog. This was a garden I designed in Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire. My clients wanted elegant curves, a seating space, fine lawn and flower beds. Robert is a well established engineer and I could see that he wanted a neat, refined design, that was (obviously) well engineered. The site had a lot of level differences between 50cm and 1.4 metres. I came
Why should we plant Wildflower Meadows? I believe in very attractive well kept, ornamental gardens, but I also believe in wild spaces. If we have enough ground in a garden I believe in creating some wild space. There are several reasons for this, firstly because of the environment, but also because Wildflower meadows create fantastic mood in your garden. This wildness that can be juxtaposed with mown paths. A sense of getting away in a
In the first year as seen in the previous Part of the blog, we can see the meadow is just establishing and can look quite disappointing, it takes faith and commitment to develop a meadow, but now we can see the wild meadow in full bloom in the second full season!
Wild Pond Design The photo shows the pond and meadow in the first growing season, the meadow is still germinating and developing… I will add further photos this next season 2018 as it matures. The Site & Brief I was asked to work in the upper area of this long, thin and sloping garden in Bladon. The site had fantastic views across the fields, various wildlife, and also many mature trees that added a lot
Here is a garden we built in Eynsham last year. Our brief was to create a warm family garden for our client to enjoy with her grandchildren.The space was closed off before with a fence and two large conifers, this left it feeling cut off from the house. We wanted the client, a concerned grandmother to be able to explore and play with the children in the garden. We felt that leaving the fence meant
This picture shows a wildlife pond in summertown, with a sculpture behind supposed to reflect in the water and open up a dark space in the corner of the garden.
Doug Holloway is a landscape architect, and writer. He lives in Oxfordshire with this Wife and Daughter. In his spare time he enjoys, film, food, walking in nature & surfing. In recent years, having met his Wife, who is of Turkish origin, he has also enjoyed Turkish culture, including food, noticeable in his expanded waistline, swimming in the silky Mediterranean of Bodrum, and exploring the wild, arid landscapes of the region… when it is not too hot.