In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order - Carl Jung

I’m sharing a really fun new project with you this month. It’s quite an unusual one; a front garden with nature, beauty, and chaos all channeled into one small urban space. The design was inspired by Carl Jung - read on to find out more.

You’ll also find a piece I’ve written for Country Life, all about roses. Why you should be planting yours now, and how I went about choosing the right ones for my own front garden.

And speaking of my garden, there are all the usual snippets from life here in Wiltshire.

This weekend I’m planting the last of my bulbs…some of which arrived thanks to a lovely gift from Crocus, which I’ll share pictures of in the spring.

Thanks for reading,

Tabi x

SPOTLIGHT ON A RECENT PROJECT

When I first met my client - a French herbalist who’d lived in her Kilburn townhouse for over twenty years - we sat in her serene and light-filled kitchen and drank homegrown lemon verbena tea.

We talked about plants, soil health, regenerative growing, wildflowers, herbs, family, children and everything in between. It set the tone for all the meetings that followed.

A keen plantswoman, with a thriving allotment for medicinal herbs and cut flowers, my client wanted help with her front garden. To make it a space of creativity and inspiration.

Unusually, she was adamant she didn’t want any screening and instead wanted to start conversations with passers by. It was primarily to be for wildlife, and a space for her to ‘play.’ And so we set about designing it with Carl Jung’s quote in mind.

We we came up with an unfussy planting palette, and we left space for self-seeders and room for the garden to evolve at its own pace.

The curves in the planting plan loosely follow the lines of a number 3 - symbolising openness, connection, creativity and the birth-life-death cycle that lies at the heart of the living world.

Sesleria autumnalis is the dominant plant in this formation, supported by Digitalis lutea, Nepeta govaniana, Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’, Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Alba’, Epimedium pubigerum and Teucrium hircanicum ‘Purple tails.’

Colour wise it’s simple; yellows, creams and dusky purples. Fruit trees and climbers are also present; but none are repeated as we didn’t want the garden to feel overtly designed.

In the spring, the perennials will be cut back to make way for bulbs - Allium ampeloprasum var. Babingtonii (Babington leek), Narcissus ‘Thalia’, Crocus ‘Jeanne d’arc’, Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’, Fritillaria meleagris ‘Alba’ and Tulipa sylvestris.

I hope to share more pictures with you all next summer when the garden will be in full swing.

NEWS…

I am doing a lot of writing at the moment, and as ever I’m loving the time to reflect.

I also hope it’s good for my brain and concentration levels, to switch between the different practices of designing and drawing, and writing and reading!

Below is a link to my latest piece for Country Life, all about bare root roses.

IN MY OWN GARDEN…

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