As I was on site to let in the tree surgeons, I took the opportunity to take photos of some early spring flowers in this very productive garden, complete with chickens.

The weather is wild and windy on this exposed but beautiful spot on the Childwickbury plateau near Harpenden, where rabbits and deer graze with little regard to boundary. This is the second spring after planting for this garden and I’m off to see my client tomorrow to review progress.

Evergreen overwintering plants have provided shelter for tender personalities, and judicious use of netting keeps hungry rabbits and deer at bay.  As the season progresses and the plants harden off, the netting is removed and the garden relaxes in high summer.

I rejuvenated this rockery by re-arranging existing rocks in a strata-like formation, using pale yellow, fresh white and lime green plants set against a new dark Thuja hedge to enhance dappled spring sunshine.  This is the first season after planting: I am always keen to return to gardens to make sure all is growing according to plan.

I made the most of the sunny weather today and visited a garden planted last autumn.

Raised beds within the garden as well as round the borders capture beautiful back-light and give

the plants a jewel-like quality.

The garden at dusk reaches another dimension by lighting the pergola and apple tree.  Lighting is controlled in zones so the tree and pergola lights can be operated independently.

I visited the gardens at Childwickbury on a softly sunny evening in early August 2011, the first summer after planting.

While no-one was looking, the white flowered, silver leaved Lychnis made itself at home and started to self-seed about the place in a cottagey kind of way, with my client relishing in giving spare seedlings to gardening friends. Bees adore the late flowering maroon Allium sphaerocephalon and Cynara, whose robust thistle heads of purple are beautifully back-lit against the dark purple leaves of the Cotinus.

This is garden development sets out to rejuvenate a farmhouse, cottage and barn united by a shared driveway and set amongst gorgeous rolling hills in rural Hertfordshire. Besotted by the landscape, I used soft and undulating shapes, reminiscent of the shapes on the horizon, to unite the new gardens to the wider environment.

This beautiful and elegant contemporary garden was designed autumn 2010 and construction started May 2011; it’s always an exciting time when the garden leaves the page to take shape and become reality. Here’s the original concept illustration, concept design and master plan.

I’m interested in contrasting and complimentary shapes so experimented in this south-facing border with irises, alliums, box and daisies backed with wisteria, roses and clematis. My colour palette for this bed was shades of greens and purples, with white highlights.

The box balls echo the round shapes of  Allium Purple Sensation and daisies, with the iris providing a cool contrast of sword-like leaves in a quiet grey-green, topped with fantastic flowers. I also added some Allium nectaroscordum with nodding bell-shaped flowers of maroon and pale green that flower a few weeks after A. Purple Sensation.

Spring is all about detail as tiny flowers in bright colours vie for your attention, then there is a massive surge as whole trees are covered in blossom!