NGS Annalal's Gallery

This was my last garden in the project for the NGS, the smallest garden being only 32ft x 12.5ft but don't be fooled by it's size. Size isn't everything, as they say and that is definitely the case with this garden. I say garden but this garden came with a very interesting 100 year old cottage, tucked down a small lane in the heart of Christchurch in Dorset.

You need to enter the garden via the cottage and a knock on the door was answered by Lal, brimming with enthusiasm and ready to show you his work, which is truly amazing. Lal is an artist specialising in wood. As you enter the front room, you are met by a large rocking horse and every nook and cranny was filled with his creations. The pieces are carved, smoothed and waxed to perfection from the large pieces which included a wellington boot, to tiny pieces for which he has had to make tools to create.
Tucked away in an alcove was Anna, who is also a Royal Academy artist. Her paintings and drawings have an ethereal quality about them, calm and serene, which was a perfect compliment to Lal's work and personality.

After leaving the front room, you enter the walled garden, with its high walls clothed with plants. Around the garden are their works of art. Lal's in wood and Anna's paintings and sculptures.

Pencil Gate leading to 2nd patio

Pencil Gate

It Started With A Kiss

Bit of Rough

Kitty in the bushes

Wooden Knot beautifully painted with flowers

3rd patio at the top of the garden a cosy corner

Honeysuckle by the seating area

One of Anna's paintings

Clematis

Fish Sculpture

This is just a flavour of the paintings and sculptures hidden in the garden. When you visit the garden, Lal tells you the stories behind the pieces, which adds an interesting dimension to the garden.

A sculpture of Lal almost hidden from view

This home and garden are quite unique, together with Anna and Lal and their fantastic talents, a garden worth visiting next year.

Anna holds classes at her home and details of those, together with her work and Lals woodwork can be found here http://www.annasims.co.uk/ Take a look, because my descriptions do not do their work justice.

Finally the last portrait of the project. Anna has recently had an operation on her eye but still kindly allowed me to photograph her, with Lal. (The tie and waistcoat Lal is wearing are both made by him)

Anna and Lal Sims

I am so glad I finished this project with Annalal's Gallery. A very enjoyable experience to round off an enjoyable summer. I have met some lovely people and visited some beautiful gardens, not to mention sampled some yummy cake, all in the name of research you understand! My favourite for flavour was Betty's cake at Knowle Farm (the secret ingredient being Mascapone cheese as the filling) and the lovely ladies of the WI at Herons Mead, made cake that was so light it nearly flew off the plate.

I now need to edit all the photographs and then send them to the NGS to use as they wish.

I started off this project hoping it would raise my profile as a garden photographer and finish it thinking that it doesn't really matter if it doesn't. It's enabled me to regain my confidence as a portrait photographer, got me out of the studio, where I spend my days photographing products, very enjoyable but not a lot of opportunity for interaction and I am helping a charity, so win win I feel.

I have slightly neglected my garden, as the project has been quite time consuming but with the Dahlias at their best; there's always another year to get it right.

Yesterday I spend a wonderful day visiting Sarah Ravens garden in East Sussex but that's for next time.

NGS - Cottesmore Farm

This was the first rainy NGS garden I have visited. It was only drizzle and that was intermittent, so it didn't spoil the enjoyment of this truly wonderful garden.

The owner Paul Guppy had once worked at Compton Acres in Poole and that definitely shows in the layout and the planting of the garden. He is a real plantsman with an extensive knowledge of all things horticultural.

One of the long borders full of perennials, bamboos and palms

When Mr and Mrs Guppy moved to Cottesmore Farm, ten years ago, the field in front of the house, which is now a garden with winding paths and full of wonderful plants, was just an empty blank canvas for them to transform to a luscious, tropical garden. They put in the trees first to act as a wind break and then planted the Trachycarpus, which you can see dotted about the garden. Mr Guppy grew these from seed and it's quite remarkable how mature these look together with the rest of the garden, in such a short space of time. His secret it seems is tonnes of fish blood and bone each spring and I think that's a tip I shall use, albeit on a smaller scale.

Crocosmia Lucifer a star of the garden border this time of year

Not only did I love the planting in this garden but it was also full of plants with amazing texture and form.

I have a passion for Gunneras, so when I spotted one at the end of a long border, I made a beeline for it.

Gunneras are so prehistoric looking, with their enormous leaves and thorny stems

I love the colour and texture of the bamboo

To the side of the tropical and perennial borders is a wild flower meadow, which on a sunny day is full of butterflies.

Wild Flower Meadow

Perennial Sweetpea

After leaving the wild flower meadow you cross a small tarmac path which runs to the side of their bungalow.

The garden which surrounds the bungalow, is full of the most lovely perennial plants and shrubs. The garden is bordered by a black metal estate fencing with a 5 bar gate which really sets off the planting beautifully.

Pink Phlox

This garden is full of wonderful and unusual plants. Mr Guppy is a very knowledgeable plantsman and was always happy to answer questions regarding his plants and his passion for gardening really shone through.

Paul and Valerie Guppy

Cottesmore Farm is definately one for the diary next year.

I have one more garden to photograph, which I am really looking forward to, as it's owned by a couple who are Royal Acadamy artists.

NGS Noel Road

If you like a garden with quirky features, then this one is for you.

Inspired by his travels abroad and especially Rome, Ivor Pond has designed his garden around a theme, concentrating on artifacts collected from his travels and using plants as a foil to these rather then the plants being the stars.

The garden is 100ft x 30ft with narrow walkways either side of the garden and a water feature in the middle containing a stone crocodile and other kitch items.

At the top of the garden is a Roman Temple with a mural painted on the wall, inspired by the view from a resturant Ivor had visited on a trip to Naples.

Although one wouldn't normally see an English church window, on a Roman Temple, this window which was salvaged from a methodist church nearby, fits in very nicely and looks quite at home.

 

Taking  pride of the place at the front of the garden are two large statues which Ivor collected on his travels. Firstly a terracota warrior from Xiam in China and a marble statue from Ankorwat in Cambodia called Soray.

There were a couple of images which were made magical by the dappled sunlight through the foilage, and that was a head of Buddah and a pink Hydranga.

I liked this garden, not for its artifacts, or its quirkiness but for its owner Ivor. I don't think I have ever seen anyone take so much pleasure in telling people about their garden. It's so personal to him, with the memories it evokes for him, that none of its visitors can ever see the beauty that he sees in his garden.

                                                                          Ivor Pond

NGS Wimborne Road

The latest garden in my project for the NGS, was at Wimborne Road in Bournemouth. Quite local to me and a house I had passed many times as I used to live over the road.

That's the amazing thing about these suburban gardens, you can pass them everyday, without knowing what gems lie behind the garden gate and this was an absolute gem.

What caught my eye firstly was that the woodwork on the house and in the garden, was the shade of green which I had wanted to paint my garage but had turned out to be a lot lighter than I had hoped. When I mentioned this to Mrs Cleall, the garden owner, she found out the colour she had used and wrote it down for me.

I had to attend this garden without my trusty assistant Andy, as he had to work but the sun was kind enough to pop behind the clouds for brief moments whilst I took the plant portraits and then would reappear, bleaching out the colours in the garden, just as I had composed my shot of the garden!

The garden is 120ft x 50ft with a lovely rustic pergola across the width of the garden, dividing the first 3rd of the garden. This is covered in sweet peas, roses and a gorgeous smelling Trachelospermum jasminoides.

Rustic Arch

Sweet Peas

Roses on the pergola

The garden has lots of lovely beds packed full of plants but more than that the garden has lots of interesting areas which draw your eye around it.

I love the colours of the plants in this border against the green of the shed

A pond nestling amongst the plants

Looking towards the bottom of the garden from the rustic pergola

A little bridge over the man-made stream

Geese on guard

This is the first time this garden has been open on a Saturday and Sue was concerned that turnout wouldn't be as good as a Sunday but she needn't have worried because plenty of people came to visit. It was a real family affair, with her son and his family taking the entrance fee at the gate. And of course you can't forget the friends who very kindly baked the delicious cakes and served the teas. Opening your garden for the NGS is a real team effort and probably not without its stress!

This cake was delicious as it looks

I absolutely loved this garden, not only for its loveliness but also the people who own and visited the garden. It had a lovely atmosphere to it and as I listened into peoples conversations, whilst I photographed the plants, everyone around me was enjoying and appreciating the garden also.

Lovely Lavander

Lychnis

Tanacetum Parthenium

Verbascum

Sue and Mike Cleall

Sue's garden has finished opening for this season, so she and her husband Mike can sit back and enjoy it all to themselves. Well perhaps not sit back, us gardeners are not very good at just sitting back, there are always plants to prune or tweak to perfection and always plans for next year to jot down. This is another garden to make a note about for next years openings.

I have a busy gardening weekend ahead of me. I am off to the RHS garden show at Hampton Court tomorrow. I have never been on a Saturday before and as previous visits have been during the week and the traffic was horrendous then, it's going to be an early start tomorrow. And then Sunday I am off to photograph another NGS garden at Noel Road in Bournemouth. This sounds very interesting with a Roman Temple at the end of the garden - most intriguing!