Planning the garden Part 2

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 19, 6 October 1987, Page 10

Planning the garden Part 2

Our problem of how to cope with a very narrow pathway down the side of the house has been solved to mutual satisfaction. As this area would be difficult to mow if left in grass we have decided on a brick path leaving a narrow planting area on the fence side for the native ferns. A very shaded area with dappled sunlight should suit them admirably. Not being a heavy traffic area, the bricks set in a firm base of sand with timber supports on each

side should be quite adequate, and by bringing the head of the path towards the front lawn it will form a continuous walkway leading from the front of the house to the back garden. Again, leading the eye away to another area. Neither of us having tried our hand at brick laying before, any handy hints in this direction will be greatly appreciated. The back garden will be dealt with in much the same way as the front, keeping the planting borders to the fence line in order to leave the centre of the lawn as clear as possible. Shaping the borders in long sweeping curves broader at the end of the garden and narrowing off along the back fence it will lead away to the area behind the garage where a small vegetable garden and the general utility area is sited. To give a greater impression of space we would have preferred to leave the centre lawn entirely clear of any planting, but here we struck another problem in the form of an ugly diagonal concrete path leading across the lawn and finishing abruptly in the middle of it, obviously meant as a path to a rotary clothes line. The last thing we required in the middle of the lawn was a rotary clothes line, this unsightly but necessary commodity being dealt with by two stout

posts at the end of the garden with wires strung between them. As finances permit we shall invest in the fold away variety which can be pulled out for use and folded away afterwards. We sited a garden pool to the end and slightly to the side of this path and laid a small chequered design with small paving slabs, the squares between filled with river stones. Planted with stonecrops, ajugas and low growing rockery type plants it has helped to destroy the harsh line of the path which now leads to a low rockery around the pool with a small flowering cherry prunus cyclamina standing at one corner. A four tier planter with cascading plants placed on the lawn at the beginning of the path helps further to disguise it, and as the plants get more mature they will cover and soften the edges. From my kitchen window I have been watching the first buds on the magnolia soulangea 'San Jose' slowly unfolding. When mature this tree is a beautiful sight when in full bloom. With the flowering almond prunus persica wrightii to one side of it and the flowering plum prunus blieriana on the other it will be a lovely sight in early spring. Under planted with primroses, bluebells, forget me nots and lily of the valley it makes a very pretty corner.